Extract from Page Vault’s article “The Minefield of Deleted Posts: When You Don’t Capture It Before It’s Gone”
Online content disappears faster than most realize. A tweet is removed. A website is quietly edited. A post vanishes without notice. If that content becomes relevant to litigation, compliance, or an internal investigation, the opportunity to preserve it may already be lost. Historically, tools like Google’s cache or the Wayback Machine offered a second chance. But that safety net? It’s not holding up anymore.
Deleted ≠ Recoverable Anymore
Many traditional recovery tools are disappearing—or proving ineffective.
- Google’s cached pages were phased out in 2024.
- Bing’s cache is no longer accessible from search results.
- The Wayback Machine, while still operating, was never designed to capture dynamic or login-protected content like social media—and it faces growing legal and technical constraints.
If the content was not captured before deletion, recovery is often unlikely. For legal teams, relying on luck is not a strategy.
