New Delhi, May 9: Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the company will purge inactive accounts on the platform that have been inactive for years, potentially freeing up a number of long-coveted usernames. Twitter Followers To Decrease? Elon Musk Tweets About Purging Inactive Accounts, Warns Follower Count to Drop.

"We're purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop," Musk tweeted on Monday.

Moreover, the tech billionaire clarified in a subsequent tweet in response to a question about username availability that "yes", a large number of usernames were about to become available as a result of this move.

However, he did not explain how users would obtain these usernames other than the usual method of attempting to create a new account with a specific name.

According to Twitter's inactive account policy, "to keep your account active, be sure to log in at least every 30 days. Accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity".

Meanwhile, Twitter has backtracked on its decision to put its application programming interface (API) behind a paywall and will allow emergency and transportation service providers to access its APIs for free. Elon Musk Credits Father Errol Musk for Teaching ‘Physics, Engineering and Construction’.

Twitter in February announced to stop offering free access to its API and instead launched a paid version for developers worldwide.  After the controversial decision, several emergency and transportation accounts encountered issues posting alerts to the platform.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2023 12:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).