Note: This page originally stated that historic Instagram data was going to be removed from the Brandwatch platform. After closer assessment of the historical data that Brandwatch has stored and our conversations with Facebook, we decided that it is not necessary for Brandwatch to delete data previously collected from Instagram via Channels or Queries.

On April 13th we will be removing all Facebook data posted before 1st January 2017 from the Brandwatch platform.

Why is Brandwatch doing this?

This decision has been made following collaboration with Facebook. In a time of increased public scrutiny on how social network data is handled, stored and used we are committed to providing our customers with ongoing solutions that you can be confident are in compliance with the terms and conditions of our data licensors.

What are Facebook’s policies around storing historical data?

The specific term in Facebook’s policy that informed this decision was: Don’t put Facebook data in a search engine or directory, or include web search functionality on Facebook. Our agreed understanding of these terms with Facebook is that storing pre 2017 data should be considered a ‘searchable directory’. We expect all vendors of social data to be held to the same standards as well.

What data is being removed?

All mentions and metadata from facebook.com. This includes data that has been collected via Channels and archive data collected via Queries. This is 1.47% of all clients’ Query and Channel data from before 2017.

How can I export my data before it is deleted?

You can export volumes for Facebook data in your existing Dashboards before April 13th for the purposes of benchmarking or reporting.

Recommended exports for Facebook data:

• Volumes can be exported from Volume over Time and Chart Components to CSV or JPG, PNG and SVG
• Volumes can be exported from the FB Analytics Component for Channels to JPG, PNG and SVG