Did rob reiner delete his x post or was it removed by the platform?
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Executive summary
The available reporting indicates Rob Reiner’s X (formerly Twitter) account was no longer available because he appears to have deleted the account around November 2024, and independent archives show the disputed message never existed there — meaning the viral screenshot was fabricated rather than removed by the platform [1] [2] [3]. Multiple fact‑checks and archive searches failed to find the alleged January 2023 post attributed to Reiner, and prominent figures who reposted the image did so with inaccurate claims about its provenance [1] [4] [3].
1. What the archives show: Reiner’s account gone, no record of the disputed post
Researchers who examined archived captures — including the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine and other timeline archives — report hundreds of Reiner’s posts are documented but that the specific screenshot circulating after his death does not appear in those captures, and fact‑checkers concluded no such message was posted from his account; those investigations also note Reiner’s X account was no longer available because he appears to have deleted it around November 2024 [1] [3].
2. The viral image was a fabrication, not platform moderation
Multiple independent fact‑checks concluded the screenshot that showed Reiner saying “Until Trump goes to prison I will no longer be posting on Twitter” was digitally altered from an authentic earlier post and did not exist on his timeline; outlets including AFP and PolitiFact found no evidence the platform had removed an authentic post matching that image, and Reuters similarly confirmed the image was fabricated [1] [4] [3].
3. Why this distinction matters: deletion versus takedown
The difference between a user deleting an account and a platform removing a specific post is material for attribution: the reporting explicitly ties Reiner’s X account disappearance to a voluntary deletion around November 2024 rather than to a content moderation action that would explain an isolated missing post [1] [2]. Fact‑checkers’ searches through archived captures and the absence of the contested message in documented timeline history undermine claims that the platform had removed that specific alleged post [1] [3].
4. Who amplified the false claim and how political motives shaped the spread
Far‑right activists and pro‑Trump accounts, including Laura Loomer, circulated the fabricated screenshot after the Reiners’ deaths to defend or rebut President Trump’s comments, with subsequent reporting showing those shares relied on an image that independent verifiers say was altered; several outlets note the rapid spread came amid intense partisan anger over Trump’s own social posts about Reiner [1] [4] [3] [5]. That pattern — politically motivated amplification of an inauthentic image — points to an agenda to discredit Reiner or to defend political allies rather than to expose a moderation decision by X [4] [3].
5. Alternative explanations and limits of the record
While archive searches and multiple fact‑checks failed to find the purported post and reporting states Reiner’s account was deleted around November 2024, public reporting does not include a direct statement from X confirming whether any specific post had been removed earlier for policy reasons; coverage therefore cannot absolutely exclude the possibility of prior moderation of other content, only that the particular screenshot in circulation was not an authentic archived post from Reiner’s account [1] [3].
6. Bottom line — what the evidence supports
Available evidence supports that Reiner’s X presence was ended by account deletion (circa November 2024) and that the incendiary screenshot circulating after his death was fabricated, not a trace of a post taken down by the platform; mainstream fact‑checkers and archival searches converge on that conclusion, and the amplification came largely from partisan actors rather than from platform disclosure of a content removal [1] [2] [3] [4].