Twitter will purge old and inactive accounts says Elon Musk

Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter late last year, there were several big changes that occurred – from the reduction in workforce to the controversial blue checkmark. Now, there are more changes happening, and it’s bad news for users that have not used or logged into their Twitter accounts in a few years.

In a tweet, Elon Musk announced that Twitter will begin “purging” accounts that have had no activity in several years. The announcement appears to be a follow-up to Musk’s tweet last December 2022 saying Twitter will start “freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts”.

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

At the moment, Musk did not say when the purging of old and inactive accounts will take place. Subsequently, there are no specific details on what would happen to the accounts. There’s also the issue of accounts of the deceased. Would Twitter offer an option to memorialize the accounts similar to Meta?

The upside to this is that current users will be able to choose a new handle that they’ve been waiting for. However, this could also lead to more issues on Twitter such as impersonations and the like, especially since the blue checkmarks are available for purchase. Also, what would happen to old Twitter threads if one of the accounts in the thread became purged?

That said, there are still a lot of questions regarding Musk’s announcement to purge old and inactive Twitter accounts. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about it in the coming days or weeks.