| Twitter is clearing out defunct usernames on a site-wide scale for the first time in recent memory. Any accounts that haven't logged in in the last six months will be removed. Not tweeting is fine — Twitter won't be deleting accounts just because you're a passive user of the site — but you'll have to have at least logged in. The company has already started sending out emails notifying account holders of the upcoming purge, which is set to start on December 11th, although the company says that process "will happen over many months — not just on a single day.” The news has kicked off a wave of speculation over Twitter username land grabs, with plenty of folks joking on the internet today about how they'll finally be able to snag their handle of choice, although Twitter has yet to acknowledge how the claim process will work once the inactive usernames are up for grabs. But there's also bigger ramifications here, like what happens to accounts of the deceased. Twitter doesn't seem to have an answer yet as to what will happen in those cases: “We do not currently have a way to memorialize someone’s Twitter account once they have passed on, but the team is thinking about ways to do this," the company commented. It's the kind of problem that Twitter will have to solve at some point — and by kickstarting this kind of clean-up process, it may have just forced the issue for itself. - Chaim P.S. Dieter's still out this week, so a few guests will be popping in to keep things running during the ~ season of deals ~ + Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December “As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter. Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account, as stated in our inactive accounts policy." | 
