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Twitter to deactivate inactive accounts and free up usernames in December

By Hilary Kimuyu November 27th, 2019 1 min read

Twitter accounts which have been inactive for more than six months will be deactivated unless the owners log in before an 11 December, the microblogging and social networking service has said.

Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning: “Sign in by December 11th, or your account will be history and its username will be up for grabs again.”

PRIVACY POLICIES 

Any account that hasn’t signed in for more than six months will receive the email alert.

The site said the move has been made necessary because users who do not log-in were unable to agree to its updated privacy policies.

The firm would not say how many current accounts fit the criteria, although it is estimated to be in the many millions.

DEAD USERS

Twitter will send out more notices when the deadline draws near.

In order to prevent one’s account from being deleted, a user must log into their account.

Twitter’s current policy offers deactivation of a dead person’s account once a trusted third-party – a parent, for example – has proven their identity.

However, the policy states that in no circumstances would Twitter grant access to the account, which would prevent deletion.