Twitter won’t delete inactive accounts until those of the dead can be memorialised

On Wednesday, Twitter announced that the removal of inactive accounts will be delayed until the company can offer users a way to memorialise the profiles of the deceased.

Twitter caused a stir earlier this week when they announced that accounts which have been inactive for over six months will be deleted on December 11. As a result, those who have lost loved ones that were once Twitter users grew concerned about losing these digital memories. In response, the company outlined on Wednesday that the removal process will be halted until it develops a method to memorialise accounts of the dead.

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.

— Support (@Support) November 27, 2019

The team also clarified that the inactive account policy was only going to be enforced in the European Union at first, which was a detail that was not expressed earlier this week. Nevertheless, the process will not move forward until they “create a new way for people to memorialise accounts.”

As the company stated, “this was a miss on [their] part,” as other social media platforms have already devised ways to honour the content of those who have passed.

While Facebook already gave users the ability to memorialise accounts, it also added a Tribute section in April for such profiles. This page, which is separate from the timeline, gives family and friends a place to share stories and memories of the individual.

Twitter has not stated how it will accomplish its version of such social media memorialisation, but it did promise to keep the Twittersphere updated.

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