If you haven't been active on Twitter or don't want to lose your username, you might want to log in within two weeks, or you could end up losing your account forever. The social media platform announced on Tuesday that it would start deleting accounts of inactive users.
Inactive users have been warned
Twitter has already started sending out emails to owners of accounts that haven't been used for more than six months, warning them that if they do not use their accounts before December 11, their account will be deleted and their Twitter handle will be up for grabs again. The timeline remains vague, however, because "more than six months" can mean anything between 7 months and several years.
"As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we're working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter," a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement. "Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account, as stated in our inactive accounts policy."
How does Twitter define 'Inactive'?
As mentioned above, the platform already has an inactive accounts policy in place but has done little to enforce it upon users. According to the existing policy, the activity of a user is determined by when the user last logged in to his or her account so even if you haven't tweeted since 2010 but have signed in to your account recently, your account is safe.
As far as Twitter accounts of deceased users are concerned, the company said that although it does not currently have a way to memorialize accounts of users who have passed on, it is trying to figure out a way to preserve them.
When will the accounts be deleted?
Although Twitter will begin its purge December 12 onwards, the spokesperson says the account removal process will take place over several months and will not be carried out on a single day.
Twitter's new policy could work in your favour if you've wanted to get a coveted username that someone else grabbed instead. Though, it remains to be known when deleted usernames will be made available to the platform's active users.
