Social Media Archiving in Practice: A Troubled Landscape in Review

ABSTRACT

The following article provides a brief overview on the current state of institutional archival practices of social media content and explores some of the key challenges the field continues to face. Social media use has developed into the leading means of human communication in the world, with billions of people utilizing multiple platforms on a daily basis to both document their individual lives and forge digital communities around various interests. Users generate exorbitant amounts of ephemeral content in the form of text, photos, videos and more across multiple platforms which are, by design, unarchivable. As a result, libraries, archives, and other cultural preservation institutions have struggled to find the proper technological tools to capture the sheer amount of data being generated, while also grappling with a variety of methodological, ethical and legal questions that the practice raises. All the while, the amount of social media data containing potentially important cultural heritage artifacts of our time continues to grow and remain at risk of being forever lost, altered or altogether erased. This article looks at several notable examples of major social media data loss that have already taken place in recent history and examines one of the largest institutional attempts to preserve social media thus far in the Library of Congress’ Twitter Archive. By exploring some of the key challenges that arose during this attempt which ultimately grounded the project, this article aims to better understand what continues to keep the practice of social media archiving at bay, and what large scale changes might be necessary to make any further progress in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media archiving
• digital preservation
• personal archives
• digital archiving
• big data

Acknowledgments

This article was originally written for the course LIS INFO 601-01: Foundations of Information, taught by Dr. Irene Lopatovska at Pratt Institute School of Information. Marc is currently an MLIS candidate at Pratt and would like to thank Dr. Lopatovska for her encouragement and guidance throughout the class and during the preparation of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Leisa Gibbons, “Connecting Personal and Community Memory-Making: Facebook Groups as Emergent Community Archives,” Connecting Personal and Community Memory-Making: Facebook Groups as Emergent Community Archives, November 30, 2018, http://InformationR.net/ir/24-3/rails/rails1804.html.

2. Jenny Ungbha Korn, “Black Nerds, Asian Activists, and Caucasian Dogs,” International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies 5, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 14–25, doi: 10.4018/ijicst.2015010102.

3. Leisa Gibbons, “Connecting Personal and Community Memory-Making: Facebook Groups as Emergent Community Archives,” Connecting Personal and Community Memory-Making: Facebook Groups as Emergent Community Archives, November 30, 2018, http://InformationR.net/ir/24-3/rails/rails1804.html.

4. Mike Ashenfelder, “Reality Check: What Most People Actually Do with Their Personal Digital Archives: The Signal,” The Library of Congress, (May 15, 2013), https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2013/05/reality-check-what-most-people-actually-do-with-their-personal-digital-archives/.

5. Eveline Vlassenroot et al., “Web-Archiving and Social Media: An Exploratory Analysis,” International Journal of Digital Humanities 2, no. 1–3 (June 22, 2021): 107–28, doi: 10.1007/s42803-021-00036-1.

6. Anat Ben-David, “Counter-Archiving Facebook,” European Journal of Communication 35, no. 3 (May 1, 2020): 249–64, doi: 10.1177/0267323120922069.

7. Jeremy David Johnson, “Networked Reality and Technological Power: Argumentation and Memory in Facebook Memorials for Nelson Mandela,” Argumentation and Advocacy 54, no. 3 (March 20, 2018): 219–37, doi: 10.1080/00028533.2018.1451978.

8. Stine Lomborg, “Researching Communicative Practice: Web Archiving in Qualitative Social Media Research,” Methods for Analyzing Social Media, (July 5, 2017), 78–88, doi: 10.4324/9781315091204-6.

9. Clifford Lynch, “Stewardship in the ‘Age of Algorithms,’” First Monday, December 2, 2017, doi: 10.5210/fm.v22i12.8097.

10. Christina Ortner, Philip Sinner, and Tanja Jadin, “The History of Online Social Media,” The SAGE Handbook of Web History, 2019, 372–84, doi: 10.4135/9781526470546.n25.

11. Jeffrey W. Treem and Paul M. Leonardi, “Social Media Use in Organizations: Exploring the Affordances of Visibility, Editability, Persistence, and Association,” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2129853.

12. Eveline Vlassenroot et al., “Web-Archiving and Social Media: An Exploratory Analysis,” International Journal of Digital Humanities 2, no. 1–3 (June 22, 2021): 107–28, doi: 10.1007/s42803-021-00036-1.

13. Samaneh Borji, Amir Reza Asnafi, and Maryam Pakdaman Naeini, “A Comparative Study of Social Media Data Archiving Software,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2022): 111–19, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2022-0013.

14. Jason Steinhauer, “Preserving Social Media for Future Historians: Insights,” The Library of Congress, July 24, 2015, https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2015/07/preserving-social-media-for-future-historians/.

15. Ibid.

16. Amelia Acker and Adam Kreisberg, “Social Media Data Archives in an API-Driven World,” Archival Science 20, no. 2 (September 24, 2019): 105–23, doi: 10.1007/s10502-019-09325-9.

17. Anat Ben-David, “Counter-Archiving Facebook,” European Journal of Communication 35, no. 3 (May 1, 2020): 249–64, doi: 10.1177/0267323120922069.

18. Lev Manovich, “Trending: The Promises and the Challenges of Big Social Data,” Debates in the Digital Humanities, January 1, 2012, 460–75, doi: 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677948.003.0047.

19. Stine Lomborg, “Researching Communicative Practice: Web Archiving in Qualitative Social Media Research,” Methods for Analyzing Social Media, July 5, 2017, 78–88, doi: 10.4324/9781315091204-6.

20. Seemantani Sharma, “‘How Tweet It Is!’: Have Twitter Archives Been Left in the Dark?,” SSRN, December 22, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197073.

21. Beatrice Cannelli and Marta Musso, “Social Media as Part of Personal Digital Archives: Exploring Users’ Practices and Service Providers’ Policies Regarding the Preservation of Digital Memories,” Archival Science 22, no. 2 (January 24, 2022): 259–83, doi: 10.1007/s10502-021-09379-8.

22. Luke Winkie, “‘Our Generation’s inside Joke’: The Bizarre, Nostalgic Afterlife of Vine,” The Guardian, August 23, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/23/our-generations-inside-joke-the-bizarre-nostalgic-afterlife-of-vine.

23. Beatrice Cannelli and Marta Musso, “Social Media as Part of Personal Digital Archives: Exploring Users’ Practices and Service Providers’ Policies Regarding the Preservation of Digital Memories,” Archival Science 22, no. 2 (January 24, 2022): 259–83, doi: 10.1007/s10502-021-09379-8.

24. Samaneh Borji, Amir Reza Asnafi, and Maryam Pakdaman Naeini, “A Comparative Study of Social Media Data Archiving Software,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2022): 111–19, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2022-0013.

25. Beatrice Cannelli and Marta Musso, “Social Media as Part of Personal Digital Archives: Exploring Users’ Practices and Service Providers’ Policies Regarding the Preservation of Digital Memories,” Archival Science 22, no. 2 (January 24, 2022): 259–83, doi: 10.1007/s10502-021-09379-8.

26. Gayle Osterberg, “Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress: Timeless,” The Library of Congress, January 4, 2013, https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-the-twitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress/.

27. Beatrice Cannelli and Marta Musso, “Social Media as Part of Personal Digital Archives: Exploring Users’ Practices and Service Providers’ Policies Regarding the Preservation of Digital Memories,” Archival Science 22, no. 2 (January 24, 2022): 259–83, doi: 10.1007/s10502-021-09379-8.

28. Laurel Wamsley, “Library of Congress Will No Longer Archive Every Tweet,” NPR, December 26, 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/26/573609499/library-of-congress-will-no-longer-archive-every-tweet.

29. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

30. Gayle Osterberg, “Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress: Timeless,” The Library of Congress, December 26, 2017, https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/12/update-on-the-twitter-archive-at-the-library-of-congress-2/.

31. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

32. Laurel Wamsley, “Library of Congress Will No Longer Archive Every Tweet,” NPR, December 26, 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/26/573609499/library-of-congress-will-no-longer-archive-every-tweet.

33. Library Of Congress Collections Policy Statements Supplementary Guidelines: Social Media., July 2022, https://loc.gov/acq/devpol/socialmedia.pdf.

34. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

35. Samaneh Borji, Amir Reza Asnafi, and Maryam Pakdaman Naeini, “A Comparative Study of Social Media Data Archiving Software,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2022): 111–19, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2022-0013.

36. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

37. Eveline Vlassenroot et al., “Web-Archiving and Social Media: An Exploratory Analysis,” International Journal of Digital Humanities 2, no. 1–3 (June 22, 2021): 107–28, doi: 10.1007/s42803-021-00036-1.

38. Samaneh Borji, Amir Reza Asnafi, and Maryam Pakdaman Naeini, “A Comparative Study of Social Media Data Archiving Software,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2022): 111–19, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2022-0013.

39. Beatrice Cannelli and Marta Musso, “Social Media as Part of Personal Digital Archives: Exploring Users’ Practices and Service Providers’ Policies Regarding the Preservation of Digital Memories,” Archival Science 22, no. 2 (January 24, 2022): 259–83, doi: 10.1007/s10502-021-09379-8.

40. Eveline Vlassenroot et al., “Web-Archiving and Social Media: An Exploratory Analysis,” International Journal of Digital Humanities 2, no. 1–3 (June 22, 2021): 107–28, doi: 10.1007/s42803-021-00036-1.

41. Ibid.

42. Tobias Blanke, “Reassembling Digital Archives—Strategies for Counter-Archiving,” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11, no. 1 (February 2, 2024), doi: 10.1057/s41599-024-02668-4.

43. Ashlyn Velte, “Ethical Challenges and Current Practices in Activist Social Media Archives,” The American Archivist 81, no. 1 (March 2018): 112–34, doi: 10.17723/0360-9081-81.1.112.

44. John Moore, “Social Media: The next Generation of Archiving,” Nextgov.com, July 10, 2023, https://www.nextgov.com/modernization/2013/11/social-media-the-next-generation-of-archiving/211165/.

45. Eveline Vlassenroot et al., “Web-Archiving and Social Media: An Exploratory Analysis,” International Journal of Digital Humanities 2, no. 1–3 (June 22, 2021): 107–28, doi: 10.1007/s42803-021-00036-1.

46. Stine Lomborg, “Researching Communicative Practice: Web Archiving in Qualitative Social Media Research,” Methods for Analyzing Social Media, July 5, 2017, 78–88, doi: 10.4324/9781315091204-6.

47. Seemantani Sharma, “‘How Tweet It Is!’: Have Twitter Archives Been Left in the Dark?,” SSRN, December 22, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197073.

48. Ryo Shiozaki, “People’s Perceptions on Social Media Archiving by the National Library of Japan,” Journal of Information Science, July 11, 2022, 016555152211086, doi: 10.1177/01655515221108692.

49. Seemantani Sharma, “‘How Tweet It Is!’: Have Twitter Archives Been Left in the Dark?,” SSRN, December 22, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197073.

50. Ryo Shiozaki, “People’s Perceptions on Social Media Archiving by the National Library of Japan,” Journal of Information Science, July 11, 2022, 016555152211086, doi: 10.1177/01655515221108692.

51. Seemantani Sharma, “‘How Tweet It Is!’: Have Twitter Archives Been Left in the Dark?,” SSRN, December 22, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197073.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid.

54. Ryo Shiozaki, “People’s Perceptions on Social Media Archiving by the National Library of Japan,” Journal of Information Science, July 11, 2022, 016555152211086, doi: 10.1177/01655515221108692.

55. Lucia Bainotti, Alessandro Caliandro, and Alessandro Gandini, “From Archive Cultures to Ephemeral Content, and Back: Studying Instagram Stories with Digital Methods,” New Media & Society 23, no. 12 (September 20, 2020): 3656–76, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820960071.

56. Ryo Shiozaki, “People’s Perceptions on Social Media Archiving by the National Library of Japan,” Journal of Information Science, July 11, 2022, 016555152211086, doi: 10.1177/01655515221108692.

57. Amelia Acker and Adam Kreisberg, “Social Media Data Archives in an API-Driven World,” Archival Science 20, no. 2 (September 24, 2019): 105–23, doi: 10.1007/s10502-019-09325-9.

58. Stine Lomborg, “Researching Communicative Practice: Web Archiving in Qualitative Social Media Research,” Methods for Analyzing Social Media, July 5, 2017, 78–88, doi: 10.4324/9781315091204-6.

59. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

60. Ibid.

61. Seemantani Sharma, “‘How Tweet It Is!’: Have Twitter Archives Been Left in the Dark?” SSRN, December 22, 2019, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3197073.

62. Elisabeth Fondren and Meghan Menard McCune, “Archiving and Preserving Social Media at the Library of Congress: Institutional and Cultural Challenges to Build a Twitter Archive,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 47, no. 2 (July 26, 2018): 33–44, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2018-0011.

63. Ryo Shiozaki, “People’s Perceptions on Social Media Archiving by the National Library of Japan,” Journal of Information Science, July 11, 2022, 016555152211086, doi: 10.1177/01655515221108692.

64. Ibid.

65. Sharon Ringel and Rivka Ribak, “Platformizing the Past: The Social Media Logic of Archival Digitization,” Social Media + Society 10, no. 1 (January 2024), doi: 10.1177/20563051241228596.

66. Ashlyn Velte, “Ethical Challenges and Current Practices in Activist Social Media Archives,” The American Archivist 81, no. 1 (March 2018): 112–34, doi: 10.17723/0360-9081-81.1.112.

67. Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, “The World’s Digital Memory Is at Risk,” The New York Times, June 21, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/opinion/digital-archives-memory.html.

68. John Moore, “Social Media: The next Generation of Archiving,” Nextgov.com, July 10, 2023, https://www.nextgov.com/modernization/2013/11/social-media-the-next-generation-of-archiving/211165/.

69. Samaneh Borji, Amir Reza Asnafi, and Maryam Pakdaman Naeini, “A Comparative Study of Social Media Data Archiving Software,” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2022): 111–19, doi: 10.1515/pdtc-2022-0013.

70. Anat Ben-David, “Counter-Archiving Facebook,” European Journal of Communication 35, no. 3 (May 1, 2020): 249–64, doi: 10.1177/0267323120922069.

71. E. J. Hobsbawm, On History (London: Abacus, 1998).

72. Jo Guldi and David Armitage, The History Manifesto (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2015).