Elon Musk’s X, once known as Twitter, has been a simmering stew of odd marketing choices, ongoing upheavals, and odd overflows of testosterone during the past few months.
Twitter has never been quiet, though. The most trustworthy two-edged sword in the social media sphere prior to Musk was Twitter. The next thing you knew, you were being buried by a harassment campaign or having your day wrecked by a thread that made you want to hurl your laptop out the window. One moment, you were retweeting a humorous meme account and enjoying some wholesome debate about your current TV binge fixation.
It’s a good idea to take precautions with your posting history, whether you’re currently on X or were once a user of Twitter, because, even if you’ve switched to one or more other social networks, it’s possible that someone will find one of your old tweets and start a commotion without your knowledge. (And although being able to overlook something like that isn’t always a bad thing, it’s probably a good idea to be aware when it’s about to blow up.)
The best defence you can give yourself, regardless of whether you’ve stopped using Twitter, is to delete your Twitter history. If you’re interested in erasing your timeline and preventing future tweets from disappearing into the internet’s vengeful void of posterity, start here.
Start by saving your tweets.
It’s advised that you archive your tweets first before deciding on a method to delete your Twitter history. However, the biggest benefit of archiving your tweets is that you won’t be able to delete them without one if you have more than 3,200 tweets. Why is that? Since only individual users have the ability to remove postings, any third-party apps you use will only be able to delete the last 3,200 tweets. Most deletion programmes use your archive (or instruct you on how to use your archive) to find all the older tweets you’ve accumulated and delete them in order to get around that restriction.
Getting to your archive:
1. Go to your Twitter account and select More > Settings and Support > Settings and Privacy from the left-hand column.
2. Click the Download an archive of your data link under the Your Account column. If you think you might need to remove your Twitter data quickly, make plans in advance because it may take a day or more before you get your data.
3. Twitter will send you an email inviting you to download your archive. It will be delivered in a ZIP file, which includes a subdirectory containing an HTML file. When you click on it, a webpage containing a list of JavaScript data files and a scrollable view of your complete Twitter history will open in your browser.
4. Next, remove individual tweets.
You can delete earlier tweets one at a time if you only have a handful that you want to get rid of for a variety of reasons, including embarrassment, having changed your opinion, or not wanting your new employer to stumble across them.
1. Visit the profile page.
2. Click the three dots to the right of the tweet that you wish to remove by finding it.
3. Select Delete.
4. If you’re certain, a pop-up will ask you. In such a case, select Delete.
Third step: choose a service
There are numerous services available that can be used to manage and delete your Twitter history. Some require a subscription fee, while others are free. Your most recent 3,200 tweets are the only ones that can be deleted right away. (This is a feature of Twitter’s API.) Most apps have, however, discovered a way around this restriction by assisting you in downloading your archive (see step one above) and then using the archive to essentially remove a chosen range of tweets that were created before those 3,200.
A few recent apps are:
One of the most well-known is TweetDelete, a web service that allows you to delete your Twitter history and schedule the deletion of future tweets. The only tweets removed by the free version are the most recent 3,200. The company does offer three paid plans: the Starter plan, which costs $5.99 per month or $35 per year and deletes up to 500 tweets per month; the Pro plan, which costs $6.49 per month or $40 per year and deletes up to 3,200 tweets per month; or the Premium plan, which costs $6.99 per month or $44 per year and tries to get around the 3,200-tweet restriction by letting you upload your Twitter data file and then delete a range of specific tweets.
In fact, TweetEraser and TweetDelete are nearly identical in terms of premium features and pricing, with the exception that TweetEraser offers a Beginner plan, an Advanced plan, and an Expert plan in place of a Starter plan, a Pro plan, and a Premium plan. Only two things set TweetEraser apart from its competitors: it does not provide a free version and advertises “extra fast” deletion in its Advanced plan and “super fast” deletion in its Expert plan.
Similar to the other two programmes, TweetDeleter can likewise remove any older tweets you’ve sent by searching through your Twitter archive for them and deleting them. Using keywords or the presence of media attachments, you can locate the tweets you just want to delete. The Standard plan from TweetDeleter costs $7.99 per month or $47.88 per year, while the Advanced plan costs $9.99 per month or $59.88 per year and lets you delete as many posts and likes as you want (including all of them at once). The Unlimited plan costs $11.99 per month or $71.88 per year.
Redact is a free programme that can be downloaded for macOS, Windows, and Linux that removes posts from a remarkable array of services. The limitless Reddit and Twitter post deletion, as well as the 30-day Facebook and Discord post deletion, are all included in the free edition. You may erase an unlimited number of posts from any of those platforms for $84 per year. You can also plan bulk deletions, gain access to early beta versions of new products, and delete posts from a total of over 40 services.
