A lot of businesses and individuals use Twitter on a daily basis. However, people decide to delete their Twitter account for all sorts of reasons. Often this isn’t as easy as it seems. It can be hard to figure out how to handle Twitter because of its very unique nature. In this article, you will find out how to delete your Twitter account, but also some of the reasons why this might be a positive step in terms of emotional cyber safety.

Why Should You Delete your Twitter Account?

People decide to delete Twitter accounts for all kinds of reasons. However, social networking peer pressure and the lure of the cyber world can make this hard to do. Here are some of the reasons why people would want to delete Twitter account:

  • You don’t use your account anymore. When people sign up for Twitter they think they are going to use it on a daily basis. Soon they realize it is nearly impossible to follow all that is going on, they get too overwhelmed from following the constant stream of events or not having many followers.
  • People also delete Twitter account when they are being harassed online. This has been an increasing trend, especially towards women and teens. Men are more likely to get name called and embarrassed while women are targets of physical threats and sexual harassment. The harassment could go on for a sustained period of time. Even if you block the harassers and report them, their tweets will still show up on other users’ timelines. Your followers would still see the nasty comments directed at you.
  • The closing of a business is another reason to delete a Twitter account. Most online entrepreneurs create a Twitter business account to reach out to customers, drive website clicks or conversions, promote their brand and connect with competitors. However, when the Internet start-up fails, businessmen should close all social media accounts related to their business. This is to guarantee that the business is not getting new followers when it doesn’t even exist.
  • Lately, many celebrities decided to delete their Twitter accounts. Lena Dunham, American star and writer of HBO series “Girls”, recently spoke to the media about how deleting her Twitter account was to create a safer cyberspace for herself emotionally.

Can People Delete My Twitter Account without my Approval?

No, they can’t because it requires the permission of the owner to delete. In some instances, Twitter deletes accounts of users who have been inactive for over six months. Some people also have their accounts deleted for violation of Twitter’s terms of service. As long as you keep it safe and follow Twitter’s policies and guidelines, you will have your account for as long as you want to.

The deletion process is a system of cascades. The steps are long and interdependent so that there is no chance for accidental deletion. This ensures that people only delete their Twitter accounts when they feel the need to.

Do Hackers Know How to Delete Twitter Account?

Hacking is a serious problem. Over 90 per cent of online businesses have suffered some sort of computer hack in 2011. What makes it worse is that sometimes people take too long to discover their accounts have been hacked because of the infiltration methods that hackers use to cover their tracks. If a hacker gets access to your Twitter account, they can easily access your confidential information like passwords and direct messages. They could even steal additional information like your email address or credit card number. Eventually, the hacker might delete your Twitter account.

You can easily protect your Twitter account from being hacked by changing your password on a regular basis, using a password that is a challenge (a mix between uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols) or using Twitter login verification. If you are unsure about the strength of your password you can test it here.

There are various methods for recovery of hacked Twitter accounts, but the safest way is to delete your account permanently. Be aware that you are endangering yourself by allowing someone to tweet and interact with followers on your behalf.

How to Delete Twitter Account Permanently

People often confuse how to delete Twitter account with deactivating it. Deactivating is a temporary status that happens either automatically or intentionally. You have to start by deactivating your Twitter account. If you don’t log into this account during 30 days of deactivation, Twitter will permanently delete your account.

You can delete twitter account using the following steps:

  1. First, you need to log into your Twitter account.
  2. Click on your profile icon (whether your Twitter photo or a blank square).
  3. Choose Settings from the drop-down menu that appears in front of you. Make a mental note to know which email account you used to sign in before you delete your Twitter account. You can use that email later to sign in again and end the deactivation period. You would get your account back, this way, and use it without any problems. Put in mind that you won’t be able to use the same username and email on a new account so you might as well change them before deletion.
  4. Now that you’re inside the Account Settings menu, scroll down until you reach the Deactivate my account button that is at the bottom of the page.
  5. Read the account deactivation information.
  6. Click Deactivate @yourusername. You have to verify your Twitter account by re-typing your password.
  7. After 30 days precisely, your Twitter account will be deleted permanently and you can never get it back.

You need to realize that even after permanently deleting your account, some of your content (tweets, replies) will be present on Twitter for several days later. This is because it will take some time for Twitter moderators to delete all the posts. If the posts were retweeted, it can take even longer to get the work done because Twitter is going to have these retweets tracked down to make sure they are getting deleted off of the website and removed from the web altogether.

Now that you have the right information on how to delete your Twitter account, evaluate the reasons behind this action and how it will affect your business or personal life.

Have you experienced issues with trying to leave Twitter? How do you feel about the pros and cons of using social networking? Please join or start the discussion below, n the comments section. We’d love to hear from you!