Twitter has given an update on its plan to deactivate inactive accounts on its platform. As it stands currently, the social media giant has said it has suspended plans to delete accounts until it can come up with ways to preserve the accounts of deceased people.
Twitter in a tweet today said, “We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part.
“We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorize accounts.”
The company had warned on Tuesday that accounts that have gone inactive for more than six months could be subject to removal if users fail to engage these accounts by December 11th. Predictable now is the fact the deadline will be moved.
Facebook has a system for user accounts to be memorialized after the account owner has died.
Twitter has made no provision for such a gesture. However, a Twitter spokesperson yesterday revealed that “the team is thinking about ways to do this.” Now, the company is pledging that it won’t start removing accounts (and freeing up usernames) until that system is in place.
Following Twitter’s initial announcement on its plan to remove inactive accounts, a lot of people immediately raised the possibility of losing access to the old accounts of friends, partners, family members, celebrities, and other influential Twitter users who’ve died. However, Twitter has allayed fears over this.
Although Twitter says account removal will focus on the EU to start — owing to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations — it could expand to other countries eventually.
It says, “We may broaden the enforcement of our inactivity policy in the future to comply with other regulations around the world and to ensure the integrity of the service.
“We will communicate with all of you if we do. We apologize for the confusion and concerns we caused and will keep you posted.”
Expectedly, when Twitter removes inactive accounts, there will be usernames freed up and also users should prepare for a drop in the number of their followers as accounts disappear.
