Twitter is purging inactive accounts on its platform, which may free up a number of long-coveted usernames, according to recent tweets by owner Elon Musk. Though Twitter for years has promised to put more usernames back into rotation, it hadn’t yet made any large-scale effort to do so, despite having an inactive account policy in place that suggests Twitter’s users should log in at least every 30 days to keep accounts from being permanently removed.
According to Musk, Twitter’s purge is more conservative than that policy states. Instead, he says the company is purging accounts that have had “no activity at all for several years,” while also warning users that the result of the purge may mean users’ follower counts drop. That’s something that may be more noticeable on longtime Twitter accounts whose owners accumulated a large following during Twitter’s early days as a social network.
We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
In a follow-up tweet, Musk also clarified in response to a question about username availability that “yes,” a lot of usernames were about to become available as a result of this move. He didn’t, however, clarify how users would be able to acquire these usernames beyond the usual method of trying to create a new account with a particular name.
In recent months, Twitter had considered selling desired usernames through online auctions to generate additional revenue. It’s not clear if that plan still remains in play or how it will work, if so. In December 2022, Musk had also tweeted that Twitter would “soon” start freeing the namespace of 1.5 billion accounts, noting that inactive accounts would be deleted as part of that process.
Musk has been interested in freeing up usernames for some time, having also tweeted in October it was something he was keen to do as Twitter’s new owner.