New Twitter rule would delete Marielle and Trump accounts – 05/15/2023 – #Hashtag

Twitter has tightened the rules against inactive accounts and has promised, since last week, to carry out the mass removal of these profiles on the platform. With 17 years of life, the social network of short texts houses a collection of memorable publications, accounts of historical personalities, memes and memories of deceased people that may be lost, according to fears of users, with the new guideline.

According to the updated company rule, users must log in to their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity. Inactive account names would also be made available for use by other users.

In a May 8 tweet, Elon Musk released a different rule, stating that the platform would now remove users who had not registered activity for “many years”. He also made the reservation that some accounts would be “archived”, without giving further explanation on how this would happen.

The platform encounters great resistance to the measure from relatives of deceased people who often visit the old profiles of loved ones. Removal, for them, would be a way of depriving them of family memory. “My father died and I still read his posts daily. Please keep it active,” one user asked the tycoon.

“Their Twitter story is important enough to preserve them. Maybe you can keep them [as contas] somewhere separately instead of removing them?” suggested another.

Among the distinguished accounts that could be affected are those of the murdered councilwoman Marielle Franco (no new posts since 2018) or the late singer Beth Carvalho (no updates since 2017). The profiles still receive numerous mentions and retweets on the platform by fans.

In the area of ​​historical figures, the movement can deactivate the profile of former American president Donald Trump — who was banned and reinstated on the network in 2022, but did not publish new ones — and of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, who used to publish advertisements for his government.

The wipe can also delete memorable tweets. In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix mission found the first traces of liquid water on Mars. The discovery was announced on the net. “Are you ready to celebrate? We have ICE! Yes, liquid ice on Mars!” the mission’s official profile post said.

Since the venture ended that same year, the account has not made new publications.

There is also concern about political prisoners who preserve thousands of followers on the platform. Mona Seif, sister of a famous militant arrested in 2019 by the Egyptian regime, responded to a publication by Musk saying he hoped that the initiative would not impact the accounts of imprisoned people who were unable to access the internet for years, like his brother. “His profile is crucial to maintaining his voice and presence,” she wrote.

In an interview with the Midle East Eye website, Human Rights Watch researcher Deborah Brown reiterated the concerns and added that the company’s measure could have an especially harmful effect in countries where there are tensions around freedom of expression. In these places, mere presence on social media can be essential for activists.

In 2019, in a pre-Musk era, Twitter got involved in the same mess by announcing a policy to delete inactive accounts. At the time, the company ended up withdrawing from the proposal after protests and promised to find ways to “memorialize” the accounts of people who have died.

In 2010, the platform was proud to hand over its entire history of public tweets released since 2006 to the US Library of Congress. At the time, the company defended that “tweets had become a significant part of global events”.

There is still apprehension about the future of nostalgic and classic profiles on the network, such as the comic book character snoopy It’s from horse ebooks, that went viral in the 2010s, triggering enigmatic phrases.

Finally, the rules raise questions about the increase in the number of counterfeits on the platform. As the removed usernames would be released to the public, companies, for example, that abandoned some of their profiles on the network could start to see fake accounts impersonating them. The fake accounts could even be officially verified by the platform, since the seals are now accessible to anyone who pays.

According to Musk, Twitter is home to 1.5 billion inactive accounts and the removal would be a way to make the network more reliable.

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