Twitter plans to purge inactive accounts – but some will remain
Twitter plans to purge inactive accounts – but some will remain
Elon Musk wants to free up abandoned handles that haven't tweeted for 'several years'
Elon Musk’s next big Twitter change is to purge accounts that have had “no activity at all for several years”, and warned this may affect users’ follower counts.
Musk wants to “free up abandoned handles” which may come as good news to those who have been unable to secure a certain username for business purposes. We’ve all come across accounts with that name we really want, only to find out it never tweets.
However, while the freeing up of handles seems like a good idea, many have flagged that deleting accounts from deceased users would not be right. Thankfully, Musk agrees and said he won’t remove accounts of celebrities who have passed away.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Twitter purge
␡ Twitter will soon purge inactive accounts
👏 The move will free up abandoned handles
🤔 However, users have raised some concerns
😣 People are worried about Twitter deleting accounts from deceased users and historical tweets
Sadly, it’s unclear whether less notable users will be given the same courtesy. Users have also flagged that purged accounts’ tweets shouldn’t be deleted, as this will impact historical conversations.
John Carmack, who recently departed from Meta, tweeted that “threads are already often fragmented with deleted or unavailable tweets” and purging older accounts will make the situation worse.
Musk responded to Carmack’s tweet and said “The accounts will be archived” but didn’t expand on exactly how that will work and how it will impact historical tweets.
It’s also unclear how long an account has to be inactive before it’s purged as “several years” isn’t very specific. Twitter’s inactive account policy page says users need to log in every 30 days to keep their account active, which is a change from the previous requirement of every six months.
If you haven’t tweeted for a while, then, and want to keep your handle, it’s probably time to dust off your login details and put something out there.