Twitter Delays Plan to Purge Inactive Accounts, Citing Concern for Deceased

Twitter on Tuesday put a pin in its plan to delete inactive accounts following concerns raised about preserving accounts of the deceased, reports Variety.

“We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased,” the company said Wednesday. “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 sent out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning: sign in by Dec. 11 or the history and username of the account holder will be up erased.

“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. 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,” a spokesperson told The Verge by email. “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.”

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