As part of its commitment to serve the public conversation, Twitter is in full effort to work in cleaning up dormant accounts so it can present more credible and accurate information which people can trust throughout Twitter. This means that, if a person with a Twitter account died over six months before, and no one else is representing him to log in his account, it will then be deleted. There's a big home here that the leading social media company comes up with a way to have the accounts memorialized.
Those who have tried snagging their preferred Twitter handle know too well how painful the process can be. In addition, as techcrunch.com reported, "users can squat on an account for years, holding on to handles" despite a long period of inactivity.
Twitter's Decision Confirmed
Twitter confirmed its decision to remove inactive accounts via an e-mail to TechCrunch. Also, part of its initiative is to encourage users to "actively log in and use Twitter when registering an account." This is stated in its Inactive Accounts Policy.
The company added, they've started proactively reaching out to accounts not logged into Twitter in more than half-a-year to inform them that their Twitter accounts may be taken out of the platform permanently because of being inactive for a long time. As mentioned, Twitter has an Inactive Account Policy being implemented. Although traditionally, it hasn't done much yet to have it fully enforced. More so, the company encourages its users "to, at the very least, log in and tweet every six months." To date, it has taken the added measure of reaching out to people with inactive accounts, encouraging them to log in before Dec. 11 or take the risk of being removed from the platform.
It is essential for the users to bear in mind that the inactive accounts need actually to tweet anything to keep their account. All he has to do is log in and follow the instructions of Twitter. This means that, even if the username a person wants seems inactive as based on its last activity, whoever owns that username can still hold on to it. Moreover, usernames that have below five characters cannot be registered on Twitter, and thus, that's one more thing to consider when dreaming of switching to that much-wanted username.
Twitter's Inactive Account Policy
Twitter's Inactive Account Policy is created to encourage users to actively log in and use the platform when registering an account. And, as earlier mentioned, for one to keep his Twitter account active, he should ensure logging in and tweeting at least every six months. Any account, if inactive for more than six months, maybe permanently removed from Twitter.
For Twitter to determine inactivity, it bases its judgment on the user's login frequency. It is crucial to know, though, that a user may not be able to tell if an account is presently inactive since not all signs of activity of an account are publicly visible. And, if one believes his trademark rights are being breached and that account seems dormant, Twitter has a trademark policy too, for him to follow.
