Twitter to Purge More Than a Billion Inactive Accounts

In a move that could probably give you the Twitter handle you'd always wanted to have, Twitter is likely to purge more than a billion inactive accounts. Twitter CEO, Elon Musk said that the social media platform is going to remove old and inactive accounts.

In the past, Twitter had promised that the platform would devise a mechanism to reuse handles and put usernames into rotation. However, there hasn't been any large-scale effort in this regard so far. Interestingly, Twitter's inactive account policy states that its users should log into the account once every 30 days. This way, they can prevent their accounts from being completely purged.

Account holders who have been inactive on Twitter over the years may be at risk of losing their handles.

Although Musk aims to free up usernames that aren't in use anymore, the announcement sparked concern among social media users. A section of these users are bothered about the accounts of users who have passed away.

On the other hand, Musk states that the decision to purge inactive accounts isn't as harsh as per its policies. Rather than 30 days, he states that Twitter would remove accounts that have remained inactive over several years. He also warned Twitter users that the follower count may drop if an account is purged. This trend may be visible on accounts with a large follower base or affect account holders who have been using the platform since its early days on social media.

We're purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop.Elon Musk

The CEO also posted a follow-up tweet, stating that Twitter is trying to make a lot more usernames available. Given that the platform may purge over a billion inactive accounts, users may finally get their desired Twitter handle. However, the Twitter head didn't comment on how users could get these handles beyond the traditional process of using a particular name to create a new account.

Musk Acting On His Commitment

Twitter has also considered the option of hosting online auctions to sell desired handles or usernames in recent months. This would serve as an additional source of revenue for the social media platform. Whether this plan works out or not remains unclear, and Twitter hasn't announced how they are going to approach this mission.

Back in December 2022, the Twitter CEO had announced that the platform would start to free up usernames involving 1.5 billion accounts.

When Musk stepped in as Twitter's CEO, he expressed his interest in freeing up handles. It was in October 2022 that he tweeted this while becoming the company's new owner.

Ever since Musk took over the ownership, the platform has faced competition from rivals like Bluesky, a decentralized platform, and Mastodon, an open-source platform. Moreover, several Twitter clones, such as Post and T2, are active on social media.

Although none of these platforms could replace Twitter, they have siphoned off Twitter users by thousands. For instance, Mastodon boasts as many as 1.2 active users each month.

This raging competition may have prompted Musk to lure lapsed handles back to the platform. This would eventually boost the number of Twitter users, positioning the platform in a better place to generate revenue.

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