You might be able to get that Twitter handle you’ve wanted for years

You might finally be able to get that Twitter handle that someone has been hoarding but not using for years.

Twitter has announced that it will soon begin freeing up handles on its platform by deactivating accounts that have been inactive for an undisclosed period of time. This move will open up over 1.5 billion potential Twitter handles for users who want to claim them.

Twitter owner and current CEO Elon Musk took to the social media platform to announce the move. Musk said that “Twitter will soon start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts” and assured users that “these are obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years.”

The decision to deactivate inactive accounts was made in order to give more people the opportunity to use the platform and to prevent username squatting, where people register a username and never use it, blocking others from using it. Musk said that it will begin the process of deactivating accounts “soon,” but did not specify an exact timeline.

Musk has assured users that the deactivation of inactive accounts will not impact those who have regularly been using their accounts, but that the change will only impact users who have not signed on in “years” and have also never tweeted on the social media platform. That seems like an obvious sign of an unused account and a move to free up those handles will likely be met positively by the community on the platform.

The move to deactivate inactive accounts is part of Twitter’s ongoing changes that Musk has made since acquiring the company back in October. While some of the changes he has made have been quite controversial, I can imagine that everyone is happy to hear that the person who stole their perfect handle years ago and never used it is finally getting the boot.