Twitter is a popular social media platform for sharing your thoughts, arguing with strangers and staying on top of the latest news and trends, but it can get tiring pretty quickly. Now, with Elon Musk at the helm, the price of Twitter Blue is rumoured to be going up, too. Here’s how to delete your Twitter account permanently.
There are two stages to deleting your Twitter account – deactivating and then deleting.
Deactivating your account temporarily removes it from the app. It’s essentially Twitter’s way of offering you an out in the hopes that you’ll change your mind and come crawling back to the bird app before the 30-day timer runs out.
However, leave your account deactivated for 30 days, and it’ll be deleted from Twitter’s servers permanently. That means that you’ll no longer be able to recover any of your account information, including tweets, likes, bookmarks or drafts.
While there’s no way to expedite these steps and get rid of your account on day one, deactivating (and later, deleting) your account is, thankfully, a very easy process.
For this reason, we’d highly recommend you download an archive of your Twitter data before you begin the deletion process.
Whether you’re sick of arguing with strangers in Spaces, afraid of what Musk might do to the site as its new owner or simply looking for a fresh start on a new account, here’s how to delete your Twitter account in just a few steps.
What you need:
- A PC, tablet or smartphone
- 30 days
The Short Version:
- Open up Twitter
- Head into your settings
- Deactivate your account
- Wait 30 days for it to be deleted permanently
How to delete a Twitter account
Step
1Open Twitter
You can delete your Twitter account on the website or in the mobile app. We’ll be using screenshots from a PC browser.
Step
2Click the More icon
This should look like three dots on your desktop or your Twitter icon in the iOS and Android apps.
Step
3Select Settings and Privacy
This will be midway down the dropdown menu if you’re using the desktop version.
Step
4Click Your Account
You can also download an archive of your data at this stage if you’re looking to save some of your tweets.
Step
5Hit Deactivate your Account
Once you do this, your account will no longer be viewable on Twitter until you restore it (within 30 days).
Step
6Wait 30 days
If you change your mind about deleting your account, you can reactivate it within 30 days. If you leave it untouched, your Twitter account will be permanently deleted.
Troubleshooting
No, you’ll need to log in with your password to delete your account. You can reset your password using your email address.
If you’ve given any third-party apps permission to access your account, they could sign in from another app after you deactivate it. The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to revoke third-party access to your account in your Twitter settings before you deactivate again.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
