Don’t delete it

As many people leave their various social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc, there is an attraction to make the grand gesture of deleting your posts, tweets, photos, etc. and then deleting the account too. It feels like sticking it to the platform owners or investors that there’s one less active user and account.

Marc Rogers posted this to his Mastodon account, which echos what I’ve heard from many recently too, that you shouldn’t delete the account;

Why shouldn’t you just delete your #twitter ? Abandoned social media accounts represent the same risk as abandoned domain names. Name #squatting works because reputation and influence gets attached over an account’s life -Those followers you spent time building up don’t just dissipate when you go. For a threat actor this is a huge opportunity. Some accounts carry more #influence than presidents. So if you stop using an account purge it, leave a last message, then securely lock it. (Please share)

Marc Rogers

To be clear, regarding Twitter, you can recover your account up to 30 days after deleting it. After this period your username is available for someone else to use. Depending on who you are and the influence you have (or don’t have) this could be then used by someone impersonating you, with your audience maybe not aware of this, even if you do post and let them know. I’m not sure what the ‘securely lock it’ is that Marc refers to above, but it’s worth looking into if you are going to leave a platform behind.

Deactivating your Twitter account is the first step to deleting your account permanently. Deactivation lasts 30 days. If you do not access your account within the 30-day deactivation period, your account is deleted and your username will no longer be associated with your account.

Twitter Help Center

Photo by Antônia Felipe on Unsplash