UPDATE [28th Nov, 11:12 AM] –
Due to concerns around how the new policy will affect accounts of users who have passed away, the company has pulled back on its decision to purge inactive accounts next month. Twitter accepted that made an oversight, totally forgetting about accounts of its deceased users, and no accounts will be deleted starting December 11. It is now working on a fix.
Twitter currently doesn’t have a way to memorialize Twitter accounts but it’s now starting work on this feature to bring the inactive account policy into action in the coming months. You can check out Twitter’s official tweets attached below:
We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019
We apologize for the confusion and concerns we caused and will keep you posted.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019
Original Content follows
Haven’t been active on Twitter for a long while? Don’t want to lose access to an existing Twitter username? If yes, then hurry up and log back into your Twitter account else the company is sending out e-mails warning users that their accounts will be removed next month.
The company on Tuesday announced that users who haven’t logged in for more than 6 months will lose access to their account and their username will be up for grabs by any other user. The account removal process will start on December 11, so you still have a couple of weeks to safeguard your account and username.
“As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter. Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account, as stated in our inactive accounts policy,” said the company’s spokesperson in an official statement.
Twitter has started reaching out to inactive users to inform them that a quick login could help protect their accounts from being permanently removed. It cites prolonged inactivity as a reason for account removal, which will be a “more stretched-out process instead of thousands of accounts being wiped off in a day.” You can check out the contents of the warning e-mail right here:
Hello,
To continue using Twitter, you’ll need to agree to the current Terms, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Use. This not only lets you make the best decisions about the information that you share with us, it also allows you to keep using your Twitter account. But first, you need to log in and follow the on-screen prompts before Dec. 11, 2019, otherwise your account will be removed from Twitter.
Since Twitter is going to remove a number of accounts, it means that a boatload of new usernames will be available for use very soon. The company hasn’t revealed a fixed timeline for when the recouped username will be up for grabs. But, some are skeptical of the process and believe bots will do a clean sweep of the freed-up usernames and sell the same for high prices.
If this happens it's against TOS and twitter are good at pulling that name if you send them proof. So if someone tries to sell you a username, screenshot convo and send it to help. https://t.co/F20KsEca6C
— Luke W (he/him) (@alukeonlife) November 27, 2019
Well, as one Twitter user @alukeonlife points out, the aforementioned practice is against the company’s Terms of Service. If you provide proof of the illegal practice, then Twitter will pull that username and possibly make it available for you without much hassle. Now, I’m going my eyes peeled for the username dump and so should you.
