Twitter has initiated a removal of accounts that have been inactive for a long time on the platform, in a measure known as “purging.” This will affect the number of users’ followers, as the current CEO of the company, Elon Musk, has pointed out.
The decision to release the usernames of about 1.5 billion accounts that have been inactive for years, was announced by the company last December. As Musk explained at the time, this measure would result in the removal of accounts that have not logged in or posted a tweet in years. Elon Musk has communicated that the current purge action will affect the number of followers on his accounts, as they could experience a decrease in their number.
This has been reported through his account in the social network itself, communicating that the action will affect the number of followers in their accounts, and that they will be able to see a drop in the number of followers.
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
Twitter had already warned
Of course, the measure has a trick: they will not be completely eliminated, but will be maintained archived.
Twitter warned a long time ago that it planned to purge inactive accounts that have not been used on its platform for years. They are currently working on a software update and new functionality so that users can know if they have been blocked on the social network as well as the status of their accounts.
This update will allow users to check if and for what reason their profile and posts have been classified as inappropriate to be shown to others. In addition, they may appeal this situation if they consider that there has been an error.
The update is similar to what Instagram has recently introduced for professional users, offering the ability to check if your content is eligible to be featured as recommended and see the reasons why it has been removed, as well as request a review of the decision.
