On Monday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced a plan to clean up old Twitter accounts that have been inactive for years. This move also aims to free up old usernames, but many users on the social media platform expressed concern about the move, wondering what would happen to the accounts of people who have passed away.
Billionaire Musk tweeted, “We will clean up accounts that have had no activity for many years, so there may be a decrease in followers.” However, Musk’s announcement was met with strong reactions, with users saying that many social media sites are “effective digital graves,” and deleting their loved ones’ accounts is like “removing a gravestone.”
Since buying the company in October 2022, Musk has made a number of changes to Twitter, including a new program for the blue verification badge that forces users to pay a monthly fee starting at $8 for “verification.”
It is believed that Twitter’s recent action to clear out inactive accounts may also be aimed at helping Musk’s goal of boosting the company’s revenue. This is especially relevant after reports from the New York Times in January suggested that Twitter was exploring the possibility of selling user names in order to generate additional revenue.
The newspaper cited informed sources that Twitter employees conducted conversations last December about selling some user names. Engineers discussed managing online auctions where people could bid on user names.
Regarding unique usernames, they can be profitable as they are often taken by early users of social media platforms, and some individuals and brands offer to pay thousands of dollars for them.
It is worth noting that Musk tweeted in December 2022 that Twitter will soon release around 1.5 billion account usernames, indicating that inactive accounts will be deleted as part of this process.
It is also noted that this new step comes concurrently with the announcement that Twitter is considering a new plan to verify accounts for companies and institutions, with monthly fees not exceeding $1,000 USD.
