Twitter is permanent fire. This has been the case since Elon Musk completed the process of purchasing the social network and, motivated by a number of reasons, among which undoubtedly the profitability of the service, began to make decisions and implement changes, as well as other rather questionable measures. And what’s worse (or better for some, because there are those who think, and rightly so, that Musk is doing very well) that we should not expect changes in this regard, at least in the short term.

Those who read me often know this I tend to be quite critical with the many moves of the new owner of Twitter and that his decision to censor journalists marked, in my opinion, a turning point, a turning point, a point of no return, from which it is very difficult for me not to see aspects of the Negative in practically all of their decisions. So much so that at some point I started to wonder if I had lost my objectivity when talking about Twitter.

Today, however, I’m glad that’s not the case, and as incredible as it may seem, I’m going to speak positively about Musk’s latest announcement in relation to Twitter. And no, I’m not doing it out of compulsion or trying to prove anything, I just honestly think that what it’s bringing up makes all the sense in the world, that it’s good for the social network and for its users, and that it can also have a positive impact on social network infrastructure costs. Come on, that feels like a success in every rule.

We clean up accounts that have been inactive for several years, so you’ll likely see a drop in followers

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023

In the absence of the communication team (because he fired the whole team), we know about this news, which was actually already advanced some time ago, e.g. tweet from Musk himself, in which he states that inactive Twitter accounts will be deleted, freeing up those usernames. And for those who are occasional users of the social network, the same message clarifies that it will only affect “accounts that have been inactive for several years«.

When this possibility was discussed at the beginning of the year, Musk put the number of inactive accounts on Twitter at around 1.5 billion, a number that may seem exaggerated at first glance, but may not be so far from reality if we consider that both individuals and businesses tend to create more accounts than they usually use. Whether due to specific events or promotions, a fleeting curiosity about Twitter, or any other reason, chances are the number of inactive accounts is monstrously high.

Yes, will need to see if there is a second phase of the plan to remove inactive accounts and then release their usernames, fee for the most interesting ones, which has also been speculated about in the past. But until that can be confirmed or denied, the cleanup can certainly go pretty well. With one caveat, that is what happens to deceased people’s accounts. We know that those celebrities have the approval of the social network, but it is true that others, from anonymous people, or at least not so public, remain as a reminder of said people. And at this point I hope Twitter knows how to manage it properly and sensitively because it would win them a lot of points.