How to archive social media channels

Social media platforms can be challenging to archive as the technology they use to deliver quick, instantly-updated and visually appealing content is often incompatible with web archive technology. We can currently only archive:

  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Instagram

We were previously able to capture Twitter, but had to stop in July 2023 because of technical changes to the platform. You can still view archived Twitter feeds in our Twitter archive.

Only the content publicly posted on a specific social media account can be targeted for archiving. We cannot capture retweets, direct messages or user submitted comments.

Please make sure videos hosted on YouTube are publicly listed. We cannot capture ‘unlisted’ videos.

If you would like to archive your YouTube or Flickr account, or you are aware of any accounts which we are not archiving, please contact us. Before contacting us, make sure you check to see if we already archive your account.

Although we can archive Instagram channels we cannot provide access to them at the moment. Please contact us to check whether or not we are archiving your channel(s).

If your organisation uses any other social media platforms, you will need to look at other options to manage them in line with your own information management policies. This could be:

  • through your own website
  • other electronic systems

If you need further advice about archiving your social media, please contact us.