Elon Musk has announced to Twitter users via the microblogging platform that accounts with no activity for several years will be purged.
The Twitter owner's new change is the most recent to the social media site he purchased in October 2022, following the highly contested move to charge a monthly subscription to have a blue tick by their name in April.
As per Twitter’s usage policy, people should log into their accounts once every 30 days at least to avoid being removed permanently due to prolonged inactivity.
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Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, posted on his own account to announce the news, tweeting: "We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop.”
As with previous changes to the platform, such as the controversial decision to remove the account verification checkmarks from users, many users were quick to criticise the new move.
One account posted: "Please don’t delete accounts of people who have passed on… it’s an important memory for many of us who have lost family who were active."
While another added: "There may be historical accounts and tweets that are worth saving, i.e:
- Viral tweets that were significant at the time.
- Deceased persons.
- Legacy organizations.
- Old friends.
- Posts, relevant to real-world events, with historical data, live streams, timestamps, etc."
Many more accounts agreed, with another adding: "Why would you do that? There are lots of legends who are no longer with us. Their Twitter history is something important enough to preserve IMO.
"Perhaps you can keep it somewhere separate instead of purging?"
This is not the first time a change like this has been discussed. Previously in 2019, prior to Elon Musk owning the platform, when Twitter announced a plan to free up usernames - the same concerns were raised.
In the end, however, Twitter made the decision to leave the accounts of deceased users active.
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