According to Twitter owner Elon Musk, Twitter plans to remove the accounts. No, not accounts belonging to extremists, neo-Nazis or spreaders of disinformation.
Twitter plans to remove inactive accounts.
“We’re removing accounts that haven’t had any activity for several years, so you’ll probably see the follower count go down,” Musk said in a tweet(opens in a new tab).
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It’s unclear when Twitter plans to do that. The way Musk’s tweet is worded makes it sound like the company is actively in the works now.
And that’s a big problem for Twitter and its users if that’s the case.
On the one hand, what counts as activity? Many Twitter users don’t tweet; they only log in to read content from the accounts they follow. According to Twitter’s official policy, the company considers an account inactive if the user is not logged in for 30 days(opens in a new tab). However, Twitter has rarely, if ever, taken action against user accounts for simply not logging in for a month.
But Twitter users, even Musk fans and those who to pay(opens in a new tab) to subscribe to his exclusive tweet content via the platform’s subscription feature, he had a month(opens in a new tab) pressing concern(opens in a new tab): Twitter accounts belonging to the deceased.
The tweet may have been deleted
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The tweet may have been deleted
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The tweet may have been deleted
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This is a serious problem. Celebrities and other notable users who have died have obviously not logged in for years. Deleting inactive accounts will delete your accounts and any associated history.
And of course there are accounts of deceased family members that many users revisit to reminisce. Even the controversial Andrew Tate expressed his concern(opens in a new tab) to Musk on his late father’s account, which has now been inactive for nearly a decade.
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“Very good idea,” Tate tweeted in response to Musk. “But my dad passed away and I still read his account daily. Please keep it active.”
In a subscriber-only tweet to one of his followers, Musk appeared(opens in a new tab) to say dead celebrities would be considered. However, this doesn’t seem to address users’ concerns with non-celebrity deceased loved ones.
The old Twitter regime first considered the idea of purging inactive accounts in 2019. But the backlash from users to the possibility of Twitter deleting the accounts of dead loved ones was too much to ignore. The company backtracked shortly after announcing its intention and claimed it was specifically due to this issue.
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“We’ve heard from you about the impact this would have on the deceased’s accounts,” the official @TwitterSupport account he tweeted(opens in a new tab) in 2019. “This was a mistake on our part. We will not remove any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to remember accounts.”
Unfortunately, the old Twitter didn’t end up rolling out this feature before Musk acquired the company. There is still no way to officially commemorate accounts on the platform.
Now it’s unclear whether Twitter will back down again. Or maybe Musk’s tweet was just a scare tactic to get users to log back into their accounts. If someone was trying to increase their monthly active user stats to attract advertisers, that would certainly be one way to do it. We will soon find out.
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Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that Twitter will start purging dormant accounts. In his tweet, Musk notes that Twitter is looking to go through accounts that have not been active in over six months and remove them from the platform. This new measure aims to clean up Twitter and make sure only active users are participating on the platform.
At Ikaroa, we believe that this move is a great step forward in regulating the platform. It will help to ensure that users have a positive experience when using Twitter, as it should be free of spam, outdated accounts, and inactive followers. It is essential to have a platform free of bots and other fake accounts in order to foster a healthy and thriving online community.
A positive consequence of this activity will be felt by brands and businesses that use Twitter as a marketing tool. By purging dormant accounts, companies can focus their efforts on engaging and targeting those that are actively engaging and participating in the platform.
Overall, this move from Twitter is a strong sign that it is committed to providing a great user experience for the members of its community. As the company strives to improve its platform, brands and businesses should take advantage of this opportunity to focus their attention on those users that are active, engaged, and excited to be on the platform. Ikaroa is proud to be part of this excited and vibrant twitter community, and looks forward to continue seeing improvements and innovations that will help the platform continue to thrive.
