Social Media Archives


Do you document your interests, aspirations and important moments in your life on your social media account? We invite you to contribute your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter archives to us as part of our new initiative to preserve social media content. Your contributions will allow future generations and researchers to study and understand everyday life in the 21st century, and how people used social media platforms.


What are we interested to collect?

We are interested in social media accounts of Singaporeans or accounts about Singapore. Please note that all contributions will be assessed based on our selection guidelines before they are added into our collections.

 

How will your social media archive be made accessible?

Social media archives that have been accepted as part of our collections will not be made available for public access for the time being.

 

How to donate your social media archive

Step 1

Identify which social media account you would like to contribute. The account should best represent your interests, aspirations and important moments in your life.

 

Step 2

Download your archive from the platform directly. For instructions, please refer to the user guides:

Please select the following options where applicable:

  • Media Quality: High
  • Format: JSON
  • Date range: All time

Depending on the size of your account, the archives may take several days to be generated, and may be split into multiple zip files. The total size of all files may be more than 1 GB.

 

Step 3

Decide what contents in your archive you would like to contribute. 

The archive will contain all content and activities that you have on your social media account to-date. Please review the contents (posts and stories, media, comments, messages, friends list, search history, and likes) in your archive and decide what you are comfortable to contribute to us. We would recommend contributing minimally the folders containing your posts, stories, and media as these are key information that tells your story. 

 

Step 4

Upload your social media archive files to a file sharing platform such as Google Drive or Dropbox. 

 

Step 5

Complete the online contribution form in this portal, include the file sharing link, and indicate your access rights preference.  

You can choose to provide online or restricted access on NLB’s platforms (when available), as well as an embargo period.

 

How do I know if my contribution has been accepted? 

We apologise that we are unable to let you know if your contributions have been accepted. 

Social media archives contributions that have not been accepted will not be downloaded or kept by us.

 

Who can we contact for assistance? 

Please reach out to us through our Contact Us form.