Twitter is purging inactive accounts on its platform, which may free up a number of long-coveted usernames, according to recent tweets from owner Elon Musk. Although Twitter has for years promised to put more usernames back into rotation, it has yet to make any large-scale efforts to do so, despite having an inactive account policy instead suggesting that Twitter users should log in at least every 30 days to prevent accounts from being permanently deleted.
According to Musk, the Twitter purge is more conservative than that policy says. Instead, he says the company is purging accounts that haven’t had “any activity for several years,” while warning users that the result of the purge may mean the drop in users’ fan accounts. That’s something that may be most noticeable in old Twitter accounts whose owners amassed a large following in the early days of Twitter as a social network.
In a follow-up tweet, Musk also clarified in response to a question about username availability that “yes,” many usernames were about to become available as a result of this move. However, he did not clarify how users could acquire these usernames beyond the usual method of trying to create a new account with a particular name.
In recent months, Twitter had considered selling desired usernames through online auctions to generate additional income. It’s unclear if that plan is still in play or how it will work, if so. In December 2022, Musk also tweeted that Twitter would “soon” begin freeing up namespace for 1.5 billion accounts, noting that inactive accounts would be removed as part of that process.
Musk has been interested in freeing up usernames for some time, having also tweeted in October it was something I wanted to do as the new owner of Twitter.
—————————————————-
Source link