This archive report was first published on 30 November 2019.
Twitter has put its plan to deactivate inactive accounts on hold following a wave of criticism from users.
The social media giant had announced plans to remove accounts that had not been used for more than six months, citing regulatory concerns.
However, the company has now admitted that it did not have a policy in place for memorializing dead users, describing this as a 'miss on our part'.
Twitter Support tweeted on November 27, 2019: 'We've heard your feedback about our effort to delete inactive accounts and want to respond and clarify. Here's what's happening:'
Twitter's initial plan was to free up usernames by removing inactive accounts, which often held lucrative handles that active users found frustrating to claim.
But the company has now suspended its plan until it can find a suitable way to memorialize dead users' Twitter accounts.
