People who use Twitter anonymously to communicate sensitive information, or who worry about online harassment, should consider taking steps to protect themselves. The site is used by activists, whistleblowers and political dissidents, as well as regular people, who fear Musk could abuse or mishandle their information. By default, Twitter saves your tweets, likes, DMs (direct messages) and lists of followers and those you’re following. It also has information about all your contacts from your phone’s address book, if you granted it access, as well as details on what ads you’ve clicked. There are other issues that could face as well. Musk is barreling through ideas for his vision for Twitter , but it’s still unclear what the experience will look like for regular visitors when the dust has settled. So far, Musk’s repeated interest in opening up Twitter for “free speech” has led to looser rules for content moderation and enforcement, leaving users vulnerable to more harassment or misinformation, critics say. A botched rollout of a subscription verification system, Twitter Blue, resulted in a flood of account imitations and scams. Musk has also started restoring accounts banned for threats, harassment and misinformation, including that of former president Donald Trump. And massive layoffs have hit core teams responsible for everything from moderation to security.

If you’re considering leaving Twitter, or are not sure but want to be ready, you can start by backing up all of your old tweets and other information. Twitter offers its own backup option. Go to Settings → Your Account → Download an Archive of Your Data. After you jump through a few security hoops, you will be notified that your request was received. The company will send you a notification and email when you are able to download the information. The process should take around 24 hours, but people have experienced delays in recent weeks. You will receive a folder filled with other folders and files. To use the archive, double-click on the “Your archive.html” file. It will open a simple landing page in a browser where you can see your tweets, lists and likes. Not everything you downloaded is included on this page. To find more, click on the README file linked at the top and search for the specific information you want from that list (like your followers). Then find and open the appropriate file in a text editor.

Once you have safely backed up your data, you can delete your past tweets if you want to continue using the site but minimize the data it or other people can access. Twitter only lets you delete one tweet at a time and doesn’t have a built-in feature for deleting in bulk or on a schedule. We recommend using a third-party tool such as Tweetdelete.net . You can set it to delete your tweets older than a week and up to a year, or you can start fresh and delete them all at once. It can also delete all your old likes. Twitter says deleted tweets will “no longer be publicly available,” but it’s unclear how long they are saved on Twitter’s servers and therefore accessible to the company. Twitter also preserves any quote tweets that show your original post, so those will live on.

If you are truly done with Twitter, you can delete your account, but there are a few caveats. If possible, consider deleting your past posts and likes and uninstalling the app, but not deleting your actual account. This will prevent your username from becoming available to the public and being used for scams or by someone pretending to be you. If you’re deleting your account to make sure the company no longer has access to your data, it’s not a one-click solution. Twitter will hold on to your data for at least 30 days in case you change your mind and want to reactivate the account, and some content will linger, such as sent DMs. To delete your account, go to Settings → Your Account → Deactivate Your Account. Select 30 days for the Reactivation Period and click Deactivate. After that time, Twitter says, it will remove your data from its systems. California residents also should be able to ask Twitter to delete all their data under the California Consumer Privacy Act. The company does not make this process clear, but start with this form for contacting Twitter and select “I want to ask a question regarding privacy on Twitter,” then try “Cancellation of data” from the second drop-down menu.

Stop using Twitter DMs

Privacy and security experts have been calling on Twitter to make its direct messages encrypted for years. The company hasn’t, and the result is an unusually exposed trove of sensitive communications. If you’ve used Twitter DMs for private conversations, you can delete an individual message from your account, but it will exist for the other people in the conversation. However, Twitter has said that if both parties delete the same DMs, the messages are deleted from Twitter’s systems. If you are using Twitter for anything other than casual chats, switch to texts or an encrypted messaging service such as Signal .

Lock down your Twitter privacy and anti-harassment settings

Musk has relaxed rules on harassment, misinformation and suspension. The decision followed years of work by the company to try to address its problems concerning bullying, hate speech and inappropriate content with new settings and rules. Twitter users who are noticing an uptick in issues in their feed or replies can apply the strongest protections currently provided by the service. The most extreme option is to set your account to protect tweets so only your followers can see them. Go to Settings → Privacy and Safety → Audience and Tagging, then select Protect Your Tweets. To stay public but minimize problematic replies to your tweets, go to Settings → Privacy and Safety → Mute and Block → Muted Notifications. Here, you have a list of options for notifications you can mute, such as people who haven’t confirmed their email or accounts that are new. The Mute and Block section also links to helpful third-party tools such as Block Party , which has lists of accounts you can block in bulk.

Be extra vigilant about misinformation

One other side effect of a Musk-led Twitter could be a rise in misinformation , experts say. Twitter recently ended its ban on coronavirus misinformation, and Musk himself has been known to tweet misleading information, including saying “ kids are essentially immune ” to the coronavirus. Detecting and avoiding misinformation is familiar territory for many longtime Twitter posters, but it’s worth refreshing the basics. Always pause before retweeting, especially posts that may trigger an emotional response. Follow reputable news organizations, their reporters and other reputable sources on Twitter. You can make your own Twitter list for them or follow someone else’s. If something controversial is posted by an individual, try to track it down to the original news or research source. Don’t retweet things you can’t confirm or that don’t explain or link to the source. And use fact-checking sites and reverse image searches, and — at least for now — you can look out for Twitter’s own warnings on content that may be misinformation.

Your Data and Privacy

From quitting to blocking: How to protect yourself on Musk’s Twitter

Here’s everything you can do now to secure your personal information

By Heather Kelly

December 1, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EST

7 min

The month since Elon Musk took over Twitter has been a roller coaster for the social network’s millions of daily active users. With chaotic layoffs, a failed attempt to launch a new verification service and a surge in hate speech, the fate of Twitter has felt uncertain.

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Some people have announced their intentions to decamp to competing services, while others stay to see what will happen next. Whether they stay or go, Twitter users are wondering what a Musk-owned platform will mean for online harassment, misinformation and democracy. More immediately, they are worried about the their own data on the service, backing up or deleting their accounts, or staying safe while sticking around.

If you’re concerned about your Twitter account, we have gathered some of the most important things you can (and can’t) do right now.

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