Setting Up X/Twitter Archiving

What Gets Archived

Tweets
Videos
Photos

Adding an X/Twitter Source

Go to your Sources page.
Click Add Account next to Twitter.
Click Continue to be redirected to Twitter's login page.
If you aren't logged into the Twitter account you'd like to archive, enter your login credentials for Twitter.
Click Authorize app.

Your account is connected! Remember that it will sync and your data will be available in archives starting the day after you add it as a source.

Questions on Data

When you are choosing whether to authorize XY Archive as an app for your Twitter account, Twitter displays a long list of abilities you are granting us. Some of the list reads,

See your Twitter profile information and account settings.
See accounts you follow, mute, and block.
Follow and unfollow accounts for you.
Update your profile and account settings.
Post and delete Tweets for you, and engage with Tweets posted by others (Like, un-Like, or reply to a Tweet, Retweet, etc.) for you.
Create, manage, and delete Lists and collections for you.
Mute, block, and report accounts for you.
Please note: we cannot do any of these actions with your Twitter accounts. Doing so requires requesting necessary permissions from Twitter, which we have not. The only actions our app can do is read your Tweets. See our Privacy Policy for more information.

In 2023 X/Twitter announced significant changes to how developers and organizations can access data. In light of this, we had to make a few changes to Twitter archiving. Starting May 1, 2023, direct messages and reply tweets are no longer be archived.

We’ve been working closely with our compliance team, and our Managing Director of Compliance, Travis Johnson, wrote up this guidance on how to approach archiving:

"Rule 206-4(1), the SEC Marketing Rule under the Advisers Act, defines an advertisement, in part, as “any direct or indirect communication an investment adviser makes to more than one person, or one or more persons if the communication includes hypothetical performance, that offers the investment adviser's investment advisory services about securities to prospective clients or investors in a private fund advised by the investment adviser or offers new investment advisory services about securities to current clients or investors in a private fund advised by the investment adviser…”. In addition, it also includes, “any endorsement or testimonial for which an adviser provides cash and non-cash compensation directly or indirectly (e.g., directed brokerage, awards or other prizes, and reduced advisory fees).”

What does that mean in practice? If you are using Twitter for both advertising and non-advertising-related communication (communication not meeting the definition of an advertisement according to the SEC or similar state regulation), you are technically only required to retain any communication disseminated by or for your firm that meets the definition of an advertisement.

To make this easier, it's recommended to have a separate profile for your business that you can run all of your advertising-related communication through and reserve any non-advertising-related communication, such as engagement with other industry professionals and interactions with users unrelated to your advisory services or firm to your personal Twitter profile. This helps ensure you have clean and clear recordkeeping for your firm, which makes it easier to manage as your firm grows and eliminates the need to archive tweets and other interactions that are not necessary to archive."

Outside of creating a separate business profile, if you use reply tweets and direct messages for advertising your firm, you can still download your entire archive of tweets through the steps here, if needed, during a regulatory audit.