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Why Twitter API returning JSON starting "delete"

Question

Twitter API returns the message with "delete". Please help understand what this means and why the API is returning this message. 

{  
   "delete":{  
      "status":{  
         "id":406461955981840384,
         "id_str":"406461955981840384",
         "user_id":****,
         "user_id_str":"****"
      },
      "timestamp_ms":"1562915550977"
   }
}

Before getting this message, I have got 420 (due to limited rate).

Solution

  • This is a status deletion notice from the standard streaming API. According to the Twitter documentation:

    Status deletion notices (delete)

    These messages indicate that a given Tweet has been deleted. Client code must honor these messages by clearing the referenced Tweet from memory and any storage or archive, even in the rare case where a deletion message arrives earlier in the stream that the Tweet it references.

    {
"delete":{
"status":{
"id":1234,
"id_str":"1234",
"user_id":3,
"user_id_str":"3"
}
}
}