Twitter's plan to delete inactive user accounts is on hiatus, for now.
The company is delaying the purge on concerns it will also permanently delete the tweets of inactive accounts from deceased friends, family members, and celebrities.
"We've heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts," the company said on Wednesday.
Twitter also elaborated on the reasoning behind the account purge—it needs to comply with the European Union's GDPR privacy law.
"We've always had an inactive account policy, but we haven't enforced it consistently," the company said. As a result, the proposed account purge was originally slated to first occur for inactive users based in the EU, who hadn't logged into the social media service for more than six months.
We've heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019
The other goal with the account purge was to crack down on bad actors and bots circulating misinformation on the platform. But on Wednesday, Twitter merely said it "may broaden the enforcement" of taking down inactive user accounts. "We will communicate with all of you if we do," the company added.
Currently, Twitter offers no way to memorialize and preserve accounts that belong to people who've passed away. The company also won't help family members take over a deceased person's account.
As a result, the proposed account purge had many users worried they'd lose access to all the tweets posted by deceased parents and celebrities, such as Adam West and Carrie Fisher.
"I've personally gotten notes from, some of whom have spent today crying in their homes, unable to work, fearing for their lost loved ones," tweeted Jason Scott, a historian who works for the Internet Archive. He's been taking requests from users to save digital copies of Twitter accounts that belong to the deceased.
In response to the concerns, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday: "This is mostly a miscommunication on our part. On us to clarify." Less than an hour later, the company announced its plans to delay the account purge.