Elon Musk Explains Why Many Twitter Users Will Soon See They Have Less Followers

A purge is coming to Twitter, according to its owner Elon Musk.

Musk tweeted on Monday that the social media site will be “purging accounts that have no activity at all for several years.” Musk also said users should expect follower count drops due to the purge.

In a follow up tweet, Musk explained that usernames of the purged accounts will become available, however he didn’t reveal any additional details including when it could take effect.

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Musk hinted in the early days of his tenure as Twitter owner that he wanted to conduct a purge in order to give active users the opportunity to access new usernames.

Twitter does have guidelines in place about inactivity which advises users to log in “at least every 30 days” and that “accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.” However, this is not a hard and fast rule and it’s shown as Twitter has not done account deletions other than mass bot deletion.

But Musk’s purge isn’t as stringent as Twitter’s guideline given that the account deletions should only be expected of accounts inactive for years.

Musk has had a turbulent few months as the new owner of the social media giant which he purchased for a whopping $44 billion in an acquisition that was finalized in October, but has continued to push for changes in the company’s operations such as the infamous Twitter Blue subscription platform and the reinstatement of banned accounts like Donald Trump.