Twitter Archive

WikiLeaks' Twitter account was opened in early 2009. The first tweet dates from Feb 11 2009. Since then, WikiLeaks has used its Twitter account as one of the primary tools of its public relations: announcing leaks, informing its supporters, and issuing statements to various authorities. The WikiLeaks timeline, as written in its tweets, charts the development of the organization since early 2009.

As such, we believe that the WikiLeaks tweet timeline is a valuable historical document in its own right. The development of many of the events that continue to define WikiLeaks can be seen in incremental detail here. It also serves as a repository of links to coverage of WikiLeaks' publications which was compiled as the situation developed. Twitter's own website does not lend itself very well to reading back along the timeline. To read the first tweet, for example, you would have to scroll down for upwards of ten minutes.

As well as this there is a tweet-cap, after which Twitter no longer keeps your earliest tweets. As WikiLeaks reached this tweet-cap sometime in January 2011, the earliest WikiLeaks tweets have now started to disappear incrementally.

To ensure against the gradual or sudden removal of parts of this historical document from the internet, we believe it is important to keep an archive of this important twitter account.

Although the issue has eased off since, there was some concern in late 2010 that, following the lead of companies instituting a banking blockade against WikiLeaks, Twitter might delete WikiLeaks' account. Against this eventuality, this archive will be available here.

To make the archive easily navigable, tweets will be divided on the basis of months, accessible below. Please note, some links contained in the tweets may no longer be accessible.