lptwtitdelete is a Python script and package for deleting your account's Twitter statuses on the basis of a limited number of status criteria.
NOTE: DELETING STATUSES FROM TWITTER IS PERMANENT. USE THIS SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
To install lptwitdelete, clone this repository and install using setup.py:
git clone git@github.com:widdowquinn/lptwitdelete.git && cd lptwitdelete
python setup.py installThis will install the lptwitdelete package for Python, and the script lptwitdelete, which can also be run using the alias lptd.
API keys are required to interact with Twitter. You should obtain these for yourself from https://developer.twitter.com. By default, lptd will look for these keys in the file ~/.twitter/lptwitdelete/conf.yml, and expects the following information in YAML format:
lptwitdelete:
api_key:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
api_secret_key:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
access_token:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
access_token_secret:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXIf you choose to store your API keys elsewhere, this location can be specified with the -c/--confpath option.
Detailed documentation for this package can be found on ReadTheDocs, at:
A brief summary of usage is provided below, in the Quick Start
The lptwitdelete program can be run using the name lptwitdelete, or the abbreviation lptd. For brevity, this README.md uses the lptd abbreviation.
Issue the following command at the terminal:
lptd -v --delete -o deleted.json <YOUR_USERNAME>So long as the authentication details are correct, lptd will do the following:
- acquire your recent Twitter stream (up to the most recent ≈3200 status updates) using the online API
- write these tweets to the file
deleted.jsonin machine-readableJSONformat - attempt to delete the statuses from Twitter
The unique IDs of statuses which lptd cannot delete will be written to the terminal if the --verbose or -v option is selected.
If you have a local archive of your Twitter history (see below) you can use this to identify statuses for deletion. In this example, we will use the --start_date and --end_date options to restrict deletion of tweets to a particular date.
Issuing the command at the terminal:
lptd -v --delete -a tweets.js -o deleted.json --start_date 2020-01-01 --end_date 2020-02-18 <YOUR_USERNAME>If authenticated, the command will delete from your timeline all tweets between 1st January 2020 and 18th February 2020, inclusive. The script does the following:
- reads in your local Twitter archive (in
JSONformat) fromtweets.js - filters the statuses from the archive, retaining only those that were created on or after 1st January 2020, up to and including 18th February 2020
- writes the retained tweets to the file
deleted.json, inJSONformat - attempts to delete each of the statuses from step (2) from Twitter
This tool uses the tweepy library to access the Twitter API. The API is limited by Twitter to return no more than (approximately) the most recent 3200 Twitter statuses, so to filter and delete on the basis of older statuses you will need to acquire your own Twitter archive. This can be done via the Twitter web interface as follows.
- Log on to the Twitter web interface https://twitter.com/<YOUR_USERNAME>
- Click on the More icon (three dots in a circle), and select Settings and Privacy
- Under Data and Permissions, click on Your Twitter data
- Click on Download an archive of your data
Save the compressed .zip file to a local drive. Uncompress this file to obtain a directory of files describing your Twitter history. The archive of your Twitter statuses is the file named tweet.js in this subdirectory.
lptd will only delete your Twitter statuses if the --delete switch is passed. This is intended as a brake to prevent some accidental deletions of Twitter statuses. If you do not use the --delete option, then no data should be deleted. Additionally, passing the --skip_auth argument means that no attempt is made to authenticate against Twitter, and your data should be safe. Without the --delete option, the command-lines above do the following:
lptd -v -o deleted.json <YOUR_USERNAME>downloads your recent Twitter history to the file deleted.json. No tweets are deleted.
lptd -v -a tweets.js -o deleted.json --start_date 2020-01-01 --end_date 2020-02-18 <YOUR_USERNAME>extracts the tweets from 1st January 2020 to 18th February 2020 inclusive to the file deleted.json. No tweets are deleted.
NOTE: DELETING STATUSES FROM TWITTER IS PERMANENT. USE THIS SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Unless otherwise indicated, all code is subject to the following agreement:
The MIT License
Copyright (c) 2020-2022 Leighton Pritchard
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