# Why are posts withdrawn instead of being deleted immediately?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-posts-withdrawn-instead-of-being-deleted-immediately/75985>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [December 13, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-posts-withdrawn-instead-of-being-deleted-immediately/75985 "2017-12-13T19:10:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![notriddle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/notriddle/32/133055_2.png) [@notriddle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/notriddle)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-posts-withdrawn-instead-of-being-deleted-immediately/75985/2 "2017-12-13T19:58:06Z")

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I think it’s mostly there to prevent gaslighting. If you claim to have “not said that,” and there’s a withdrawn post in the timeline, then you just might be lying.

As described [in this old announcement](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvements-to-self-deleted-posts/8564):

> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> You can still see the original post in the revisions, so nobody can hide weird or abusive content behind deletion.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-posts-withdrawn-instead-of-being-deleted-immediately/75985)._