Recently, Elon Musk’s Twitter has decided to purge accounts that have been inactive for several years. As predicted, the social media platform has faced backlash because of this decision. Here’s the news.
The purge
Twitter has decided it would be purging accounts on the platform that had been inactive for quite some time, including accounts of deceased individuals, continuing the series of policy changes that the billionaire has introduced to the company.
Musk tweeted, “We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop.”
Twitter lambasted
Twitter has faced backlash from various netizens and organizations over this decision.
Renowned publication WIRED said, “Twitter’s purge of old accounts will be pure chaos.”
Indeed, it is.
One of the most hardly affected by this new policy is netizen Emily Reed, who said she has been visiting the Twitter account of her deceased younger sister Jessica, who passed away more than 10 years ago, in order to “keep her memory alive.”
Twitter has become one of the places where Emily reconnects with her deceased sister, who she describes as almost like a twin.
However, Jessica’s account is among those Twitter purged for being inactive for so long.
Emily immediately reacted after seeing her sister’s account suspended, sharing in a tweet, “My sister died 10 years ago, and her Twitter hasn’t been touched since then. It’s now gone because of Elon Musk’s newest farce of a policy,” and posting a screenshot of her young sister’s Twitter account, @jessicalynnreed, suspended.
After learning of the Twitter purge, Emily right away visited Jessica’s page. But, in place of her page was already an “account suspended” message suggesting it may be in violation of Twitter’s rules.
“Having these digital footprints… is super important to me,” the 43-year-old Emily told the media.
Emily is not alone among those who felt terrible about the purge. Others are also reacting heavily to it.
Netizen @MLM_Mayhem wrote, “With the announcement that Twitter is going to ‘purge’ inactive accounts, like others I’m thinking of those accounts of late friends that will be gone. Thinking of my last interaction with a friend/comrade who passed from cancer last year that will vanish.”
They posted his last interaction with his friend on the platform.
Meanwhile, another netizen, @itskatexo_, tweeted, “My childhood best friends’ account is already gone. I don’t know if the account was purged a while back or if it was done today, but when I went to search him up, his account was just gone. I’m heartbroken — it feels like I’m losing him all over again.”
Will Musk backtrack?
In this regard, Twitter is unlike other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram that allow users to request an account to be deactivated or for the account to be “memorialized.” These memorialized accounts will then show the word “Remembering” next to the person’s name.
It is still unknown if Musk will backtrack on this decision.
