Twitter: It sure has changed a lot under Elon Musk’s ownership. Now, he’s shaking things up again and Grimes, who of course has two children with Musk, has some thoughts.
Yesterday (May 8), Musk announced, “We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop.”
We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
Then, John Carmack — a computer programmer and video game developer known for his work on games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, as well as his time at Oculus before leaving the company in 2022 — raised some concerns. He tweeted, “I may be reading this incorrectly, but if you are actually deleting inactive accounts and all their historic tweets, I would STRONGLY urge you to reconsider. Letting people know how many ‘active’ followers they have is good information, but deleting the output of inactive accounts would be terrible. I still see people liking ten year old tweets I made, but the threads are already often fragmented with deleted or unavailable tweets. Don’t make it worse! Some may scoff at any allusion between Twitter and ancient libraries, but while the burning of the library of Alexandria was a tragedy, scrolls and books that were tossed in the trash just because nobody wanted to keep them are kind of worse. Save it all!”
I may be reading this incorrectly, but if you are actually deleting inactive accounts and all their historic tweets, I would STRONGLY urge you to reconsider.
Letting people know how many “active” followers they have is good information, but deleting the output of inactive…
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 8, 2023
To that, Grimes replied, “I agree it’s worth preserving the libraries from the ancient internet !” About a half hour after Grimes chimed in, Musk replied to Carmack, “The accounts will be archived,” adding, “But it is important to free up abandoned handles.”
I agree it’s worth preserving the libraries from the ancient internet !
— 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (@Grimezsz) May 8, 2023
The accounts will be archived
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
But it is important to free up abandoned handles
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
So, there we have it: Our tweets from 2006 are safe.