---
title: "Twitter Plans to Delete Dead People’s Accounts, Prompting Outrage"
description: "Twitter is set to begin doing some spring cleaning and delete accounts that are inactive for longer than six months. That includes accounts of dead people."
date: "2019-11-27"
modified: "2019-11-27"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitters-delete-dead-peoples-accounts"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "social media"
  - "the digest"
  - "twitter"
---

# Twitter Plans to Delete Dead People’s Accounts, Prompting Outrage

![Twitter is set to begin doing some spring cleaning and delete accounts that are inactive for longer than six months. That includes accounts of dead people.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/twitters-deleting-dead-peoples-accounts.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Thanos Snap

Twitter is set to begin spring cleaning accounts that have been inactive for longer than six months. Users will have until December 11th to log in at least once to save their accounts from being wiped.

It's a controversial move, especially since the cull will include users who have passed away, the [*BBC* reports](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50567751>).

## Over My Dead Body

Twitter sent out emails to the holders of the inactive accounts to warn them of the cull, prompting outrage.

"My father’s Twitter account isn’t active," Drew Olanoff wrote in a [piece for *TechCrunch*](<https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/26/you-can-take-my-dads-tweets-over-my-dead-body/>). "He passed away over four years ago."

"Once in a while he’d chime in with a zinger of a tweet and I’d share it humbly with the folks who kindly follow me," Olanoff added. "I still read his tweets, and from time to time I still share them with you."

## Improving Credibility

A Twitter spokeswoman told the *BBC* that the cull would improve credibility by deleting inactive accounts from other users' follower counts — a metric that can mislead people into thinking some users have more clout than they actually do.

The user names of the deleted accounts will become available again after the December 11 deadline.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook offers a "memoralization" option that freezes accounts of people who have passed away and locks any interactions to prevent abuse.

**READ MORE:** [Twitter prepares for huge cull of inactive users](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50567751>) \[*BBC*\]

**More on Twitter:** *[Twitter Accidentally Trends Horrifyingly Explicit Sexual Terms](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-trends-explicit-sexual-terms>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)