Tags

TAGS (Twitter Archiving Google Sheet) is an open-source tool created by Martin Hawksey that automates the collection and archiving of Twitter/X search results into Google Sheets. It continuously captures tweets matching specific search terms or hashtags over time, building a growing archive of social media content.

For OSINT investigators, TAGS solves a fundamental data persistence problem in social media investigation: Twitter's API returns only recent data, and deleted tweets become unavailable. By continuously archiving tweets that match investigation-relevant terms, TAGS builds a running record that captures content before it is deleted.

Ongoing hashtag monitoring through TAGS allows investigators to systematically track discussions of specific events, persons, or topics over time. As an investigation develops over weeks or months, TAGS maintains a continuously growing dataset of all collected tweets, including ones that may be subsequently deleted.

Event investigation benefits particularly from pre-positioned TAGS monitoring. If an investigator anticipates that a specific hashtag will become relevant (for a scheduled event, an anticipated announcement, or an ongoing situation), setting up TAGS in advance captures content in real time as it appears.

The Google Sheets format makes collected data immediately usable for analysis without programming skills — filtering, sorting, and basic analytics are available through standard spreadsheet functions.

TAGS integrates with Twitter's API, which now requires paid API access for most use cases following Twitter's API pricing changes. Free tier API access is limited in the current Twitter API landscape.

The spreadsheet archives created by TAGS are immutable records — timestamps from collection time document when specific content was visible, providing evidentiary value if the original tweets are later deleted.

Document TAGS configurations including search terms, collection start dates, and the resulting dataset of archived tweets with their original timestamps.