The CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, has announced to delete all inactive Twitter accounts that have not been used for 30 days. According to the new policy updated on Twitter’s official website, the platform now requires each user to sign into the platform at least once every 30 days in order to save their account from permanent removal due to inactivity.
Reason Behind Removing Inactive Twitter Accounts
The social media platform made a similar announcement back in December 2022, where it announced that Twitter will be deleting over 1.5 billion inactive accounts and the sole behind removing inactive users is to eliminate the clutter and take up the unique usernames being kept by the inactive users, thus offering the platform a monetizing opportunity during a time of crises.
Musk previously said that the inactive users will experience a drop in their followers count since the platform is on a purging trip and it will After the announcement, a user tweeted to Musk saying, this might turn out to be a grave mistake as all inactive accounts’ ‘historic’ tweets will be lost. The user further added that Musk should ‘reconsider’ before going ahead with this plan. Musk also clarified in response to a question about username availability that “yes,” a lot of usernames were about to become available as a result of this move.
The Digital Memories
The Twitter profiles and messages of deceased relatives and loved ones function as digital memorials. Since Musk’s announcement, some users have been asking Musk to reconsider the decision. Musk responded that the accounts will be ‘archived’. “My son’s account is inactive because he died nearly 2 years ago. I would be devastated if his account were to be deleted… [I]t is one of the few things I have left,” one user tweeted. “I agree it’s worth preserving the libraries from the ancient internet,” tweeted Grimes, Musk’s ex-partner.
Also read: Twitter Users to Witness a Potential Decline in Followers; Warns Musk
