Comment by andreyandrade

Right, but that's retention for legal defense — they keep everything. The selective hiding is a different layer. They retain it, they just choose when to surface it. So users get "deleted" as UX theater while the data sits in cold storage waiting for subpoenas or PR fires. The irony is the same infrastructure that protects them in copyright suits also lets them curate what investigators see. Retention and visibility are decoupled by design.