Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December
Remember when you signed up for Twitter only to key in that perfect handle you had in your head and have it rejected because someone else had already thought about it first?! Well, that elusive handle could soon be yours to claim!
Twitter has announced that it will be sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts to warn them that if they do not sign in by the 11th of December, you can kiss its ass goodbye. The company are basically purging the platform of inactive accounts starting in december, which effectively means that @dragonslayer might just finally become available for me to use!
“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. 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,”
“We have begun proactive outreach to many accounts who have not logged into Twitter in over six months to inform them that their accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.”
Twitter Spokesperson
As for when exactly you can stake your claim to that Twitter handle you’ve always wanted, the company didn’t exactly say. They did mention that the account removal process “will happen over many months— not just on a single day,”. So don’t be too disappointed if your desired handle isn’t available come December 12th. All good things take time!
The company also mentioned that it is working on something to memorialize the accounts of the deceased. As compared to Facebook, Twitter doesn’t yet have a way of memorializing accounts of those who have passed on, but you can definitely expect something soon, with the spokesperson claiming that “the team is thinking about ways to do this,”.
Going back to the purge, its worth noting that you dont actually have to tweet anything to be considered as “active”. Just log in and follow the instructions on twitter and you’ll be fine. If you’ve been off Twitter for ages and reading this, it’s not too late. Unless of course, you’re the dude who stole @dragonslayer from under my nose.. then please, just let me have it.
