The Facts
Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday announced the platform will begin “purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years.”
Musk added that many users will see their follower count drop, but reaffirmed this is not the first time Twitter has removed inactive accounts.
The Spin
Narrative A
Musk continues to work toward making Twitter better. The platform needed changes so it could raise much-needed revenue and move closer to being the free-speech haven Musk promised it would become. Purging these accounts will allow active users to utilize popular handles and cut back on bots.
Narrative B
Like Twitter’s new “verification” plan that doesn’t verify identity, this purge sounds like another scheme Musk has announced without thinking it all the way through. Hopefully, if he goes forward with the purge, he’ll be careful because many consider the accounts of deceased loved ones to be digital tombstones — documenting a chronology of important historical information. If ever there was a situation for Musk to react to the backlash, it’s this one.
