Eye on Social Media: Twitter Removing Inactive Accounts

In an effort to encourage people to be more active on Twitter and to present more accurate, credible information on its platform, the company is removing inactive accounts. The site will designate inactive users as those who haven’t logged in for at least six months. The removal will not extend to users who spend time on Twitter but don’t necessarily tweet that much.

The accounts deemed inactive will be deactivated over the course of many months rather than all at once. But when exactly this policy will be enforced is still unclear. The removal process has been delayed after Twitter got negative feedback from those who noted that the policy would also be removing the accounts of users who have passed away. The company plans on introducing an update that would allow users to memorialize accounts on the service.

If nothing else, this raises the question as to whether or not all social media platforms should introduce such a feature. After all, whether we realize it or not, our social media is effectively archiving our lives (or at least that part of our lives we choose to share on the Internet). It can be a great way of preserving our legacy – who we were, what we did etc – long after we are gone for those who would wish to have those memories of us.