Musk: Twitter will delete inactive accounts – criticism from users

Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, announced that the short message service will remove numerous accounts. This should lead to a decrease in the number of followers, Musk said on Twitter.

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

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023

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Musk had already indicated a few days ago that Twitter could possibly delete the account of the US broadcaster NPR if it did not start publishing tweets again. Now he refers to complete inactivity. Twitter rules require users to log in at least once every 30 days to avoid being considered inactive.

The interpretation of the forthcoming extinguishing action thus appears more generous. Because according to the tweet, only users who have been inactive for years should now be affected.

Musk’s announcement caused criticism

But what is behind it? Apparently, Musk wants the profile names of the deleted accounts to be available again. However, some Twitter users have expressed concern about Musk’s plans.

John Carmack expressed concern that deleting the accounts will leave older Twitter threads looking even more ragged and “fragmented” than they already are.

I may be reading this incorrectly, but if you are actually deleting inactive accounts and all their historic tweets, I would STRONGLY urge you to reconsider.

Letting people know how many “active” followers they have is good information, but deleting the output of inactive…

— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 8, 2023

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Musk personally responded to Carmack’s reply in a tweet and explained that the deletion would make sense in order to be able to reassign unused profile names. Also, the tweets would be archived.

It is unclear whether this also means that they remain visible on Twitter, even if the accounts behind them are deleted. It is not yet known when Twitter will start deleting the accounts. However, Musk is not known for taking too long to think about it. If you want to be sure that your account that has not been used for a long time is not deleted, you should register once to show that the account is still active.