Twitter is planning to remove accounts that have been idle for multiple years, according to the social network’s owner and CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet, Musk said, “We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years,” further warning users that they will likely see their follower count.
Musk later said these accounts “will be archived,” adding in a separate tweet that this action is “important to free up abandoned handles”
The billionaire did not clarify when this purge will be done nor did he reveal how long an account would have to be idle for it to be archived. However, according to Twitter’s policy, users must log in to their accounts at least once every 30 days or risk their accounts being permanently deleted.
Musk first hinted at the deletion of inactive accounts in October last year and again in December tweeted that the social network would “soon” start freeing the usernames of 1.5 billion accounts, adding that inactive accounts would be deleted in the process.
While it is not yet known how users will be able to acquire these freed usernames, earlier this year, Twitter was reportedly considering selling usernames with the intention to boost revenue, according to The New York Times.
Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter has been bringing raping changes to the social platform in an effort to generate additional revenue and one of these was the revamping of Twitter Blue, the company’s paid verification service which saw the company taking away blue ticks from legacy verified accounts and selling them instead to everyone who is willing to pay a monthly/annual fee.
Before Musk took Twitter private after his USD$44 billion takeover, blue badges were reserved for notable figures in government, media, or who were otherwise in the public eye and ran a heightened risk of impersonation.
