Twitter to Remove Idle Accounts, Archive them

FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed Twitter logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed Twitter logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo
TT

Twitter to Remove Idle Accounts, Archive them

FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed Twitter logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed Twitter logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo

Social media platform Twitter Inc will remove accounts that have been inactive for several years, CEO
Elon Musk announced in a tweet on Monday, saying that the action is "important to free up abandoned handles."

Twitter's billionaire owner in a separate tweet said inactive accounts will be archived, Musk did not add any details
on when the process will begin.

It was not immediately known if or how Twitter users will be able to access archived accounts.

Musk also said users on the micro-blogging platform could see a drop in follower count, as several inactive accounts might get removed.

According to Twitter's policy, users should log in to their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, Musk "threatened" to reassign National Public Radio's Twitter account to another company, after the public broadcaster stopped posting content to its 52 official Twitter feeds in protest against a Twitter label that implied government involvement in its editorial content.

Twitter last month removed the legacy verified blue tick from the profile of thousands of people, including celebrities, journalists and prominent politicians.

Musk has made account verification a part of Twitter's Blue subscription, a move he said would tackle the issue of bot accounts on the social media platform.



Facebook Users Affected by Data Breach Eligible for Compensation, German Court Says

A Facebook logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado
A Facebook logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado
TT

Facebook Users Affected by Data Breach Eligible for Compensation, German Court Says

A Facebook logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado
A Facebook logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado

A German court said on Monday that Facebook users whose data was illegally obtained in 2018 and 2019 were eligible for compensation.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that the loss of control over one's data online was grounds for damages without having to prove specific financial losses.

Thousands of Facebook users in Germany are demanding compensation from parent company Meta for insufficient protection of their data after unknown third parties were able to access user accounts by guessing phone numbers.

The claims, which stem from a data breach in 2021 of information gathered through the Facebook friend search feature, had been dismissed in principle by a lower court in Cologne and will now have to be re-examined.

The plaintiff had demanded damages of 1,000 euros ($1,056), but the BGH said that around 100 euros would be appropriate with no proof of financial loss.

According to the Karlsruhe-based court, the lower court must determine whether Facebook's terms of use were transparent and comprehensible, and whether users' consent to the use of their data was voluntary.

Meta previously refused to pay compensation on the grounds that those affected had not been able to prove any concrete damages.

A Meta spokesperson said the BGH's ruling was "inconsistent with the recent case law of the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe."

"Similar claims have already been dismissed 6,000 times by German courts, with a large number of judges ruling that no claims for liability or damages exist," the spokesperson said. "Facebook's systems were not hacked in this incident and there was no data breach."

Roughly six million people in Germany were affected by the leak.