Don’t Delete Your Twitter Account (Do This Instead)
If you’re thinking about deleting your Twitter , I won’t blame you (I’ll just ask why it took you so long to do this). Now there is something wild , and stability is definitely not expected. However, before you choose the nuclear option and say goodbye to Elon Musk and his ilk, consider not deleting your account: don’t stay, mind you, just leave in a safer way.
Why it’s dangerous to delete your Twitter
When you initiate the process of deactivating your Twitter account, it takes 30 days before your account is permanently deleted, tweets and everything. However, once those 30 days are up, your username becomes fair game. After all, you’ve deleted your account and therefore relinquished claims to the name. Now it’s back to “people” or at least the first to notice its availability, where it can be used in a new account for as long as that user wants.
That’s the nature of the Internet: drop a username and someone else will take it. But this is not something to be taken as probable. Of course, it doesn’t matter that someone wants to take over your new “MarvelRocksDCSucks2012” account, as your days of fighting for comic book movies on the internet are behind you. But if your Twitter username is your real name, problems are more likely to arise.
Obviously, this question is most relevant for those who have public figures. If you delete your Twitter and someone gets your nickname, they can tweet as if it were you . To make matters worse, once Twitter Blue is back , they have the option to “verify” themselves with a blue checkmark. To the average Twitter user, tweets from that account will look like they’re coming from you, no matter what the new account owner writes. “DC is the movies” can be added to your brand.
But you don’t have to be a celebrity or famous person to be concerned about this potential impersonation. For better or worse, our identities are tied to social media these days. When your name is searched online, people will find that Twitter account and anything they might have tweeted under your “name”.
While this is bad enough, it can affect important opportunities in your life. Everyone from college applicants to recruiters scours the internet looking for your digital footprint to assess if you’re a good fit for what you’re applying for. They won’t waste time investigating whether you own that Twitter account: they’ll associate those tweets with you.
Even if the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen, you don’t want someone to be able to use your likeness against you, especially if that username actually belonged to you in the past. As emphasized in this tweet by Adrienne Travis, the best course of action is to opt out of your account without completely deleting it.
How to leave Twitter safely
The first step is to delete all your tweets. Either way, this will happen automatically 30 days after you hit the official Twitter “deactivate” button, so it’s no different than doing it yourself. You can view and delete your tweets one by one, but depending on how long you have an account and how active you are, this can take too long. Instead, use a tweet removal service, such as the appropriately named Tweet Deleter . You can sign in with your Twitter credentials and the service will clear your account. It even removes likes!
Tweet Deleter will keep your deleted tweets in its app, but you can also download your account archive via Twitter if you like.
Once your tweets (and likes) have been processed, it’s time to close the store. Start by going to Settings & Privacy > Privacy & Security > Audiences & Flagging , then select Protect Your Tweets. If there is any public information left on your account, such as likes, privatizing your account will prevent it from being viewed by non-subscribers.
Then go to your profile, then “Edit Profile” to remove any personal information in your bio and replace your profile picture with something else. Finally, change your password to something that cannot be guessed . This is the digital version of locking the door and throwing away the key.