Twitter is preparing to massively delete inactive users from December

Twitter‎‎ will start ‎‎deleting user accounts that have been inactive for more than six months, unless used before the December 11 deadline‎‎. ‎

‎The deletion will ‎‎include those who died‎‎, unless a ‎‎relative or other person can access the deceased’s account.‎

‎It is the ‎‎first time that Twitter proceeds to delete inactive accounts on such a large scale‎‎. As announced, it does so because inactive users‎‎ de facto ‎‎cannot agree with its new privacy regulations‎‎.‎

Furthermore, ‎‎according to a Twitter representative‎‎, this will ‎‎improve its credibility, since by reducing the number of inactive accounts that appear as ‎‎”followers”‎‎, a user will cease to feel unnecessarily important‎‎. He denied that the initiative was taken to ‎‎”release”‎‎ user names (usernames).‎

The ‎‎deletion process will be gradual and will begin with accounts outside the US, according to the BBC. ‎‎Twitter has sent emails to account users who will be affected by the deletions‎‎, and will send ‎‎new messages when the deletion date approaches.‎

However, ‎‎Twitter has not‎‎ yet revealed‎‎ how many accounts have met the deletion criteria‎‎ so far, but it is ‎‎estimated‎‎ ‎‎to be a few million‎‎. ‎

‎Deletion will not change‎‎ anything in the ‎‎number of users the social networking platform‎‎ periodically announces, as this ‎‎includes only active daily users‎‎. According to the ‎‎latest September data, Twitter has about 145 million that use it at least once a day.‎

With regard to dead‎‎ users, ‎‎unlike Facebook, Twitter does not allow -for memory reasons- to ‎‎’freeze’‎‎ the deceased’s account and prohibit its re-use‎‎. ‎‎Twitter will allow the activity of a deceased’s account to continue‎‎ ‎‎if someone else‎‎ has the ability to keep ‎‎it active‎‎, having ‎‎previously accepted the platform’s new privacy policy‎‎.‎

Also, for deletion, there are ‎‎accounts created for archival reasons‎‎, such as the @POTUS44 which is a collection of ‎‎”tweets”‎‎ made by President Barack Obama during his term. ‎

Finally, ‎‎automated accounts (bots) will be affected as long as their owners do not log-in until December 11.‎

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