Twitter is Rethinking Plans to Delete Inactive Accounts After Outrage

Ganges75

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posted on 4 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Twitter also clarified that its move to permanently delete dormant accounts would only have affected the European Union due to GDPR and local data privacy laws.

Barely days it was confirmed that microblogging site Twitter will start removing accounts that have not been logged in for at least six months, they have announced that those plans have been put on hold until it can "memorialize accounts". Taking to their official Support handle on the micro blogging site, they posted that they have "heard" users on the impact the move can have on "accounts of the deceased" and added that "This was a miss on our part." They went on to post that they will not remove any inactive accounts until they can figure out a way to commemorate the people who have died and whose accounts are still there.

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 memorialize accounts. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

Twitter further said that the move of deleting dormant accounts would eventually only affect the European Union for the time being due to GDPR and other privacy-related regulations.

This impacts accounts in the EU only, for now. We’ve always had an inactive account policy but we haven’t enforced it consistently. We’re starting with the EU in part due to local privacy regulations (eg, GDPR). — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

Beyond complying with GDPR, 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. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

They added that they may "broaden" the enforcement of the "inactivity policy" in the future to comply with other regulations around the world, but they will communicate to users before they take such a move. Earlier in an interaction with The Verge, a Twitter spokesperson had said that the deletion of inactive accounts was to present more correct and trustworthy information for people.