How to Cite Social Media Posts in APA 7
APA 7 cites a recoverable social media post as a standalone work: the account name, the exact post date, the first 20 words of the post as an italic title, a bracketed description of any attached media and of the post type, the platform name, and a permalink. This page follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, §10.15 (pp. 348–350) and the current APA Style social media reference examples for X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and online forums. It is the APA-only social-media guide, not a YouTube, website, Chicago, MLA, or cross-style tutorial.
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Quick Answer: The APA 7 Social Media Citation
Name the person or group that owns the account. Add the handle in square brackets when the platform uses one. Write the year, month, and day of that specific post. Italicize the first 20 words — a hashtag, a URL, or an emoji each counts as one word — then describe any attached image, video, poll, or thumbnail link, then name the post type. End with the platform and the permalink. In the text, cite the year only. Do not write [...] after the twentieth word; official examples simply stop.
APA 7 §10.15 templates
Reference, X or Instagram post with a known name:
Name, A. A. [@username]. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the post [Image attached] [Post]. Platform. https://xxxxx
Reference, Facebook or LinkedIn post (no handle required):
Name, A. A. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the post [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://xxxxx
Reference, username only:
screenname. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the post [Post]. Platform. https://xxxxx
Reference, X or Instagram profile that keeps changing:
Name, A. A. [@username]. (n.d.). Posts [X profile]. X. Retrieved March 4, 2026, from https://xxxxx
Reference, TikTok profile (description, not a tab):
Name, A. A. [@username]. (n.d.). First 20 words of the profile description [TikTok profile]. TikTok. Retrieved March 4, 2026, from https://xxxxx
Parenthetical citation:
(Name, 2020)
Narrative citation:
Name (2020)
Unrecoverable DM, Story, or deleted post:
(A. A. Name, personal communication, March 4, 2026)
The current APA Style X references page — Publication Manual §10.15, Concise Guide §10.13 — states the title, emoji, and attachment tests this page follows. The printed 2020 manual still labels the same pattern [Tweet] and Twitter. Use [Post] and X unless your instructor is grading from an unchanged 2020 handout. Royal Roads WriteAnswers, restating that Style Center update, is blunt about older posts:
Royal Roads WriteAnswers on the X rename (22 October 2025)
After Twitter's name changed to X in 2023, the term "post" replaced "tweet." As in the example, references to posts that predate the change should use the new terms, since that's what readers will see when they follow the link to the source.
APA Style on the first 20 words, italics, emojis, attachments, and handles
Provide the first 20 words of the post as the title, in italics. Count a URL, a hashtag, or an emoji as one word each, and include them in the reference if they fall within the first 20 words. Do not italicize emojis.
If the post includes an image, a video, a poll, or a thumbnail image with a link, indicate that in square brackets after the title: [Image attached], [Video attached], [Thumbnail with link attached].
Include the description “[Post]” in square brackets after the title.
Present the name of the individual or group author the same as you would for any other reference. Then provide the X handle (beginning with the @ sign) in square brackets, followed by a period.
The format used for X is also used for Instagram and TikTok.
What This Guide Covers (and What It Does Not)
This is an APA 7 source-type guide for platform-native posts, comments, stories, highlights, and profiles. It is not a field survey and not a video-hosting guide. The 2026-08-21 rewrite already removed invented 2024–2025 Obama, National Geographic, CDC, TikTok, Bill Gates LinkedIn, and Reddit citations with placeholder URLs. This refresh keeps that official worked set, adds the official TikTok-profile pattern the earlier page skipped, and replaces the unverified WHO TikTok with the official Washington Post Style Center example.
- Use this page for X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Threads, and Bluesky in APA 7 §10.15.
- Use How to Cite YouTube Videos in APA for a YouTube video — that is audiovisual media (§10.12), not a social post. A YouTube Community post can follow the social pattern; the video cannot.
- Use How to Cite Websites in APA when a share, pin, or post is only how you found a webpage. Cite the page.
- Use How to Cite Personal Communications for DMs, friends-only posts, unarchived livestreams, and deleted posts your reader cannot open.
- Use How to Cite Social Media in Chicago or MLA when the syllabus names those styles.
- Use Citing Social Media: Complete Guide only when you need APA, MLA, and Chicago on one comparison page.
Post vs Profile vs DM vs Webpage Found on Social Media
APA 7 does not have one "social media" citation. It has a recoverable post, a changing profile, a nonrecoverable communication, and ordinary webpages that happen to have been shared. Pick the row that matches what you actually opened. The APA Style personal communications page is the test for anything a reader cannot retrieve. TikTok profiles are the odd case: they have no Home or Posts tab, so the title is the profile description.
| What you opened | Treat it as | Date | Ends with |
|---|---|---|---|
| A public X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky, or Reddit post | Social media post (§10.15) | Year, month, and day | Platform name and the permalink |
| A public X, Facebook, or Instagram profile, page, or highlight reel | Social media profile or page (§10.15) | n.d. plus a retrieval date | Italic tab title, then "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from" and the URL |
| A public TikTok profile | TikTok profile (§10.15) | n.d. plus a retrieval date | First 20 words of the description, then [TikTok profile] |
| A DM, friends-only post, Instagram Story, or deleted unarchived post | Personal communication (§8.9) | The exact date of the message | In-text only; no reference list entry |
| A YouTube Community post | Social media post (§10.15) | Year, month, and day | YouTube and the Community permalink |
| A YouTube, Vimeo, or hosted video | Audiovisual media (§10.12) | The video date | The video title and [Video], not a 20-word caption |
| A news story, report, or journal article you found because someone shared it | The original work | The original work's date | The DOI or URL of that work, not the share |
APA Style on posts a reader cannot recover
Cite a temporary post (e.g., Facebook Story) or a livestream (e.g., Facebook Live) that is not archived by its hosting platform and cannot be retrieved by any other means (i.e., recorded and made available online via another hosting site) as a personal communication.
Works that cannot be recovered by readers are cited in the text as personal communications. Personal communications include emails, text messages, online chats or direct messages, personal interviews, telephone conversations, live speeches, unrecorded classroom lectures, memos, letters, messages from nonarchived discussion groups or online bulletin boards, and so on.
Anatomy of an APA 7 Social Media Reference
Section 10.15 uses the same four elements as every APA reference — author, date, title, source — plus social-media extras: a handle, a specific date, a 20-word title, and one or two bracketed descriptions. The APA Style elements of reference list entries page is the general map; the platform examples supply the extras.
| Element | What to write | Where students go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Real name, inverted, then [@handle] on X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky | Writing only @BarackObama when the display name is public, or inventing a legal name for an anonymous account |
| Date | Year, month, and day of that post | Using only the year, the date you took a screenshot, or n.d. on a dated post |
| Title | First 20 words, italic, original spelling and capitalization | Pasting the whole thread, adding [...], headline-capitalizing the caption, or dropping hashtags |
| Attached media | [Image attached], [Video attached], [Thumbnail with link attached], or [Infographic] | Omitting the extra brackets when the post is a photo or a quote-post |
| Post type | [Post] on X, [Status update] or [Video] on Facebook, [Photograph] or [Video] on Instagram, [Online forum post] on Reddit | Writing [Tweet] on a 2026 paper without checking whether the instructor still wants the 2020 label |
| Source | Platform name, then the permalink | Linking the profile instead of the post, or writing a twitter.com URL and calling the site X without matching them |
X (Formerly Twitter) Posts
The Style Center's current X examples use [Post] and the site name X. Bill Gates's 7 September 2019 Alzheimer's post is the official individual-author sample; the CDC's 11 June 2020 antibody post is the official group-author sample with an image. Both strings below are the APA Style versions, including the 20-word cut and the current x.com permalinks. In the text, cite Gates or CDC and the year — not @BillGates and not the month. Copenhagen Business School reprints the Style Center note that a group identified by an abbreviation stays as shown on the work.
Official APA Style X post examples
Reference, individual author:
Gates, B. [@BillGates]. (2019, September 7). Today, it’s difficult for researchers to diagnose #Alzheimers patients early enough to intervene. A reliable, easy and accurate diagnostic would [Thumbnail with link attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/BillGates/status/1170305718425137152
Parenthetical citation:
(Gates, 2019)
Narrative citation:
Gates (2019)
Reference, group author with an image:
CDC [@CDCgov]. (2020, June 11). Scientists do not know if having antibodies to the virus that causes #COVID19 can protect someone from getting infected again [Image attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/CDCgov/status/1271180413134876672
Parenthetical citation:
(CDC, 2020)
Reference, video attached:
Prevention Institute [@preventioninst]. (2020, September 24). If you want to talk #health, you have to talk #racialjustice [Video attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/preventioninst/status/1309211009039687680
CDC stays "CDC" in the author slot because that is how the account presents the group; the handle still follows in brackets. Do not expand it to "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" unless that longer name is what the post actually shows. Camosun restates the Publication Manual reply rule: do not put "Replying to" in the reference. If the reply context matters, say so in the sentence. A quote-post's extra comment is a second source if you are using that comment.
Camosun restatement of Publication Manual §10.15 on replies
For tweet replies, do not include the “replying to” information; if that is important to note, do so within the in-text citation.
X Profiles
A profile is not a post. It has no stable publication date, so APA uses n.d. and a retrieval date. Italicize the tab you actually used — Posts is the default; write Replies, Highlights, Media, or Likes if that is the tab you cited. The official APA Style account is the current profile sample.
Official APA Style X profile examples
Reference, Posts tab:
APA Style [@APA_Style]. (n.d.). Posts [X profile]. X. Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://x.com/APA_Style
Reference, Replies tab:
Jordan, M. B. [@michaelb4jordan]. (n.d.). Replies [X profile]. X. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://x.com/michaelb4jordan/with_replies
Parenthetical citation:
(APA Style, n.d.)
APA Style on X profile tabs and retrieval dates
X profiles begin on the “Posts” tab by default. If you want to cite one of the other tabs (“Replies,” “Highlights,” “Media,” or “Likes”), use the name of that tab rather than “Posts” in the title element of the reference.
Facebook Posts
Facebook references are covered in Publication Manual §10.15 and Concise Guide §10.13. Use the name on the account. A handle is optional on Facebook. The title is still the first 20 words. After any attached-media bracket, name the post type: [Status update], [Video], or [Infographic]. The official worked post is News From Science's 21 June 2019 astronomy update.
Official APA Style Facebook post
Reference:
News From Science. (2019, June 21). Are you a fan of astronomy? Enjoy reading about what scientists have discovered in our solar system—and beyond? This [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNOW/photos/a.117532185107/10156268057260108/?type=3&theater
Parenthetical citation:
(News From Science, 2019)
Narrative citation:
News From Science (2019)
APA Style on Facebook titles, attachments, and post type
Provide the first 20 words of the post as the title. Count a URL or other link, a hashtag, or an emoji as one word each, and include them in the reference if they fall within the first 20 words. Do not italicize emojis.
If a post includes images, videos, thumbnail links to outside sources, or content from another post (such as when sharing a link), indicate that in square brackets.
Describe the post type (e.g., “[Status update],” “[Video]”) in square brackets after any description of attached content.
Credit Facebook as the site name in the source element and then provide the URL of the post.
Facebook Pages
A Facebook page — Home, About, Reviews — is a changing document. Italicize that page title, add [Facebook page], write n.d., and include a retrieval date. Do not treat a whole Page the way you treat one dated status update.
Official APA Style Facebook page
Reference:
Community of Multiculturalism. (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.facebook.com/communityofmulticulturalism/
Parenthetical citation:
(Community of Multiculturalism, n.d.)
APA Style on Facebook pages
Use the page title in the reference (e.g., “Home,” “About,” “Reviews”). Italicize the page title.
Include the notation “[Facebook page]” in square brackets.
Provide a retrieval date because the content is designed to change over time and is not archived.
Instagram Photographs and Videos
Instagram uses the X pattern: real name, then [@username], then the first 20 words of the caption, then [Photograph] or [Video]. The official photograph is the Philadelphia Museum of Art's 3 December 2019 post; the official video is the APA Public Interest Directorate's 14 June 2019 male-depression reel. Keep the caption's quotation marks and its original wording. Do not rewrite the caption as a newspaper headline.
Official APA Style Instagram examples
Reference, photograph:
Philadelphia Museum of Art [@philamuseum]. (2019, December 3). “It’s always wonderful to walk in and see my work in a collection where it’s loved, and where people are” [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5oDnnNhOt4/
Parenthetical citation:
(Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019)
Reference, video:
APA Public Interest Directorate [@apapubint]. (2019, June 14). Male depression is serious, but many men try to ignore it or refuse treatment. Different men have different symptoms, but [Video]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BysOqenB1v7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Parenthetical citation:
(APA Public Interest Directorate, 2019)
Instagram Profiles and Highlights
A profile and a saved highlight behave like an X profile: n.d., an italic tab or highlight title, a bracketed description, and a retrieval date. A 24-hour Story that was never saved is not this pattern — it is a personal communication unless the creator archived it as a highlight or moved it to another public host.
Official APA Style Instagram profile and highlight
Reference, profile:
Swift, T. [@taylorswift]. (n.d.). Posts [Instagram profile]. Instagram. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/taylorswift
Reference, highlight:
The New York Public Library [@nypl]. (n.d.). The raven [Highlight]. Instagram. Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17962199170163462/
Parenthetical citation:
(Swift, n.d.)
TikTok Videos
TikTok is the same 20-word pattern with [Video] as the post type. The current Style Center worked video is Phil Cook's 17 September 2021 "Fighting fire with fire" chemistry clip — not the older 19 November 2019 "Alkali salts get lit" string still copied on some 2020-manual libguides. The official group-author video on the same Style Center page is the Washington Post's 3 December 2019 newsroom clip. Hashtags that fall inside the first 20 words stay in the title; they are not a keyword list you invent.
Official APA Style TikTok video examples
Reference, individual author (current Style Center):
Cook, P. [@chemteacherphil]. (2021, September 17). Fighting fire with fire. #sciencetok #learnontiktok [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@chemteacherphil/video/7008953610872605957
Parenthetical citation:
(Cook, 2021)
Narrative citation:
Cook (2021)
Reference, group author:
Washington Post [@washingtonpost]. (2019, December 3). News is all around us #frozen #newsroom #newspaper [Video]. TikTok. https://vm.tiktok.com/x2sKUu
Parenthetical citation:
(Washington Post, 2019)
TikTok Profiles
Do not copy the X or Facebook profile pattern onto TikTok. There is no Home, Posts, or Replies tab to italicize. The University of Portsmouth reprint of the APA Style TikTok references page states the official title rule, and Reese Witherspoon's 2020 Style Center profile is the worked example.
APA Style on TikTok profile titles
Unlike other social media profile pages, the TikTok page does not have a “Home” or other tabs. For the title in the reference, use the first 20 words of the description (in the example, “vsco mom”).
Official APA Style TikTok profile
Reference:
Witherspoon, R. [@officialreesetiktok]. (n.d.). vsco mom [TikTok profile]. TikTok. Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://vm.tiktok.com/xS3B86
Parenthetical citation:
(Witherspoon, n.d.)
Reddit and Other Online Forums
Reddit is an online forum reference, still under the online-media family. Do not write u/ as a fake author prefix. If you know the poster's real name, invert it and put the screen name in brackets without an @ sign. If you do not, use the screen name alone. The official post is Johnny Little's 12 December 2018 neural-prosthetic AMA; the official comment is Bill Gates's 27 February 2017 reply in his own AMA.
Official APA Style Reddit examples
Reference, post with a known name:
Little, J. [j450n_l]. (2018, December 12). I'm the first person in the world with a neural-enabled prosthetic hand. Using an specialized prosthetic and a device implanted [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/a5jxbe/im_the_first_person_in_the_world_with_a/
Parenthetical citation:
(Little, 2018)
Reference, comment:
Gates, B. [thisisbillgates]. (2017, February 27). Philanthropy is small as a part of the overall economy so it can’t do things like fund health care or [Comment on the online forum post I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ask me anything.]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5whpqs/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/dea82mk/
Parenthetical citation:
(Gates, 2017)
APA Style on forum names and comments
When the real name of the author is known, provide it first, in inverted format, followed by the screen name in brackets, as in the example.
When the real name of the author is not known, provide only the screen name without brackets.
Provide the title of the post in the title position, up to the first 20 words.
Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Tumblr
The Publication Manual says the Facebook pattern also covers Tumblr, LinkedIn, and similar services. There is no separate Threads or Bluesky chapter. APA Style has not published official worked posts for those two platforms. Apply the same §10.15 tests — real name plus handle, year-month-day, first 20 italic words, attached-media bracket, post type, site name, permalink — and label the result as a template, not as an official example. A LinkedIn, Threads, or Bluesky profile takes n.d., an italic page or description title, a bracketed profile label, and a retrieval date.
Labeled templates (not invented posts)
Reference, public LinkedIn post:
Name, A. A. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the post [Status update]. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/xxxxx
Reference, LinkedIn profile:
Name, A. A. (n.d.). Home [LinkedIn profile]. LinkedIn. Retrieved March 4, 2026, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/xxxxx
Reference, public Threads or Bluesky post:
Name, A. A. [@username]. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the post [Post]. Threads. https://xxxxx
Reference, Threads or Bluesky profile:
Name, A. A. [@username]. (n.d.). Posts [Bluesky profile]. Bluesky. Retrieved March 4, 2026, from https://xxxxx
YouTube Community Posts Are Not YouTube Videos
Students mash these together because both live on YouTube. A Community post is social content: first 20 italic words, a post-type bracket such as [Post] or [Image attached], the site name YouTube, and the Community permalink. A YouTube video is audiovisual media under §10.12: the video title, [Video], and the watch URL. Do not put a 20-word caption in a video reference, and do not put a video title on a Community post.
YouTube Community template (not an invented post)
Reference, Community post:
Name, A. A. (2020, March 4). First 20 words of the Community post [Post]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/post/xxxxx
Cite the Original Work, Not the Share
Publication Manual §10.15 opens with a recoverability rule students skip: cite original social content. If an X account shared a Nature paper, a government PDF, or a newspaper story, cite that paper, PDF, or story. The share is only how you found it. Camosun's APA social-media guide quotes the manual's sentence.
Publication Manual §10.15 on original content
Cite only original content from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and so forth. If you used social media to discover content (e.g., you found a link to a blog post on Pinterest or Twitter) and you want to cite the content, cite it directly.
Deleted Posts and Public Archives
If the permalink still opens for a reader who is not logged in as you, cite the live post. If the post is gone and no public copy exists, it is a personal communication: in-text only. If a public archive — a library capture, a court exhibit, or a Wayback Machine snapshot — still shows the same post, cite that recoverable copy and give its URL. Do not paste a dead x.com link into the reference list and hope. A screenshot can be a figure; the reference still needs a URL a stranger can open, or it does not belong in the list.
Failure Modes Students Actually Hit
- In-text @handles. The reference may include [@BillGates]; the citation is (Gates, 2019). Use the username in the citation only when the username is the author element.
- Twenty-one words and a fake ellipsis. Official examples stop at word 20. Do not add
[...]. Do not paste the rest of the thread. - Year-only dates on posts. Social posts take year, month, and day. Profiles take
n.d.plus a retrieval date. Do not mix those. - Citing the repost. Cite the original post's author, date, text, and permalink. A quote-post's extra comment is a second source if you are using that comment.
- Copying the X-profile pattern onto TikTok. TikTok has no Posts tab. Use the first 20 words of the profile description, as in the official Witherspoon example.
- Private and deleted content in the reference list. If the reader cannot open the URL, it is a personal communication, not a §10.15 reference.
- u/ as an author. Reddit's UI shows
u/name. APA's author element isName, A. [screenname]or the screen name alone. - YouTube as a social post. A YouTube video is audiovisual media. A YouTube Community post can follow the social pattern; the video cannot.
- Cross-posts as one source. The same caption on Instagram and Threads is two recoverability tests. Cite the permalink you actually opened.
- Follower counts and like counts. Those numbers are not reference elements. Mention them in the sentence only if they are your data.
- Screenshots instead of URLs. A screenshot can be a figure. The reference still needs the permalink. Reproducing a post as a figure may also need copyright permission; citing it does not.
Emojis, Hashtags, and Capitalization
Keep the post's spelling, capitalization, hashtags, and links. Camosun restates the Publication Manual emoji rule: replicate an emoji if your word processor can; if it cannot, replace that emoji with its Unicode name in square brackets, such as [clapping hands]. The Unicode Consortium's emoji list is the name source APA points to. Do not italicize the emoji itself. Count it as one of the 20 words when it falls inside that window.
Camosun restatement of Publication Manual §10.15 on emojis
If you are not able to create the emoji, provide the emoji's name in square brackets, for example, "It doesn't get better than this [clapping hands] This actress deserves a [trophy]".
In-Text Citations for Social Media
Social media does not get a special in-text format. Use the author element and the year. Add a locator only if you are pointing at something a reader can find — APA does not use "tweet 3" as a page number. For a profile, the date is n.d. For two Gates items in one paper (the 2019 X post and the 2017 Reddit comment), the years already distinguish them.
In-text forms for the official examples
Parenthetical, named author:
(Gates, 2019)
Narrative, group author:
News From Science (2019) posted the astronomy update the same week.
Profile:
(APA Style, n.d.)
TikTok profile:
(Witherspoon, n.d.)
Unrecoverable Story or DM:
(A. A. Name, personal communication, March 4, 2026)
Finish the reference from the permalink
Paste the post URL into the APA generator, then check the four §10.15 tests: real name plus handle, year-month-day, first 20 italic words, and a bracket for both attached media and post type. Use the social-media worked page when you want the same pattern beside other source types.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I write [Tweet] or [Post] in APA 7?
- The 2020 Publication Manual §10.15 examples use [Tweet] and Twitter. The current APA Style X references page uses [Post] and X. Royal Roads WriteAnswers says to use the new terms even for pre-2023 posts, because that is what the live permalink now shows. Match the pair your instructor showed you, and do not mix [Tweet] with the site name X in one reference.
- How many words of a tweet or caption go in the reference?
- The first 20. A hashtag, a URL, and an emoji each count as one word. Official examples stop there with no ellipsis. If the post is shorter than 20 words, use the whole post.
- Do I italicize the first 20 words?
- Yes. APA treats a social post as a standalone work, so the title is italic. The X references page says to provide those 20 words "as the title, in italics" and then "Do not italicize emojis."
- What if I cannot find the person's real name?
- Use the username or screen name as the author, with no extra brackets. That is the official forum rule and the fallback for X, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky. Do not invent a legal name from a display nickname.
- How do I cite a deleted tweet or an Instagram Story?
- If the reader cannot open it, cite it in the text as a personal communication and leave it out of the reference list: (A. A. Name, personal communication, Month Day, Year). If a public archive still shows the post, cite that recoverable copy. If a Story was saved as a highlight, cite the highlight.
- How do I cite a TikTok profile in APA 7?
- Do not italicize Posts or Home. APA Style uses the first 20 words of the profile description as the title, then [TikTok profile], n.d., and a retrieval date. The official example is Witherspoon, R. [@officialreesetiktok]. (n.d.). vsco mom [TikTok profile].
- Should I cite a repost or the original post?
- Cite the original post. A repost without your own commentary is not a new source. A quote-post that adds analysis is a second post if you are using that added text.
- How do I cite Threads or Bluesky in APA 7?
- APA Style has not published official Threads or Bluesky worked examples. Use the §10.15 social-post pattern: name plus [@handle], year-month-day, first 20 italic words, [Post], the site name Threads or Bluesky, and the permalink. A changing profile takes n.d. and a retrieval date.
- Do I need permission to cite a public social media post?
- Citing a public post in a reference list does not require permission. Reproducing the post as a figure, screenshot, or long quotation may. When the post is private, you also have a recoverability problem: APA does not want a reference the reader cannot open.
- Is a YouTube video cited like a TikTok?
- No. TikTok is social media (§10.15) with the caption as a 20-word title. YouTube is audiovisual media (§10.12) with the video title and [Video]. Use the YouTube APA guide for the video and this page for a YouTube Community post.