Twitter to Inactive Users: Log In or Say Goodbye to Your Account

UPDATE: Amid concern about what would happen to the accounts of deceased users, Twitter said Wednesday that it would pause plans for an account purge until it came up with a way to preserve the tweets of those who've passed.

Do you have an old Twitter account you haven't accessed in awhile? Use it or lose it.

Twitter is warning inactive users to log back into their accounts or risk losing access next month. On the plus side, the company is reclaiming the Twitter handles so active users can grab them. But the main goal with the coming purge is to crack down on misinformation ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

"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," the company said in a statement. "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."

That policy, which has been around since at least 2018, says Twitter can permanently remove an account that hasn't been logged in for more than six months. But in this case, the company has created a clear deadline; affected users will have until Dec. 11 to sign in, according to BBC reporter Dave Lee, who first tweeted about the news.

So if you've stepped away from Twitter, but still want to keep your username, it's time to fire up the old account. Inactive users simply need to log back in—not necessarily tweet—to remain active.

"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," the company added.

When Twitter will allow active users to grab newly reclaimed usernames wasn't mentioned. A company spokesperson merely said affected accounts would be removed over the course of many months and not all at once.

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For user accounts registered to people who have recently passed away, Twitter advises family members to contact the company. However, the current policy will only let the family member deactivate the account, not take it over. "We do not currently have a way to memorialize someone's Twitter account once they have passed on, but the team is thinking about ways to do this," the company's spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the Internet Archive is taking requests to archive select user accounts on Twitter that belonged to the deceased and are now in danger of getting deleted.

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