Twitter has announced its plan to delete inactive accounts on December 11, 2019.
The microblogging in a notice to users on Wednesday stated that inactive accounts will be purged out if their owners don’t log in before December 11.
The notice read: “To continue using Twitter, you will need to agree to the current terms, privacy policy, and cookie use. This not only helps you make the best decision about the information that you share with us. It also allows you to keep using your Twitter account.
“First, you need to log in and follow the on-screen prompts before December 11, 2019, otherwise your account will be removed from Twitter. Need help logging in? Visit our help center. Want to create a new account? Get started. Thanks, from Twitter.”
In another statement to clarify the upcoming move, Twitter said that the deletion will for now only affect accounts in the European Union (EU).
It read: “We’ve heard your feedback about our effort to delete inactive accounts and want to respond and clarify. Here’s what’s happening:
“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).
“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.
“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.
“We apologize for the confusion and concerns we caused and will keep you posted.”