Facebook has robots.txt instructions that block the Internet Archive crawler, so Facebook material cannot be saved there. However, due to the importance of Facebook as a communication tool, especially for students, during events efforts should be made to capture publicly posted Facebook material, despite Facebook’s limitations. Efforts should focus on “pages” and “events.”
Facebook pages can be saved as a local file. We have been experimenting with the MHTML format, which is a single file html document, saving all pictures and media on a page. MHTML is supported natively in Internet Explorer, but you need to make modifications to use MHTML on Chrome or Firefox.
For Chrome: go to chrome://flags/ and enable “Save Page as MHTML”
For Firefox: I use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mozilla-archive-format/ but there are other plugins.
Saving locally from Facebook will include the account information in the file, so we will be using the Archives account: https://www.facebook.com/illiarch/ Using this account will also only let you see public material.
Facebook pages are based on an interest or cause. Events are records of protests or gatherings, including some record of who attended. Both should be saved the same. To save the file, first you must scroll until you have loaded the entirety of the page’s material, as Facebook only loads a few entries at a time. This can take a while. Then right click, save as, being sure to select the MHTML option. This material will have a great deal of personal information so raw saved materials should be restricted. Please only capture Facebook group pages, NOT the Facebook accounts of individuals.
If the donor would like to use the archiving features that Facebook provides to account owners, they can follow the instructions at this link to download their "archive": https://www.facebook.com/help/131112897028467/