How To Delete Your Twitter Account

The Reasons You Might Decide to Delete Your Twitter

In many ways, social media has changed the way that we interact with each other as a species, and perhaps none more so than Twitter. While more personal social media networks like Facebook let you connect and engage with people you know, Twitter does almost the opposite – it allows anyone, anywhere, to converse with each other, express opinions, and debate. It’s a fantastic tool because of this, but it can also be rather draining, especially if you get involved in controversial topics and online discussions about politics. Many people find Twitter hard to stay away from if they have it, and if this is the case for you, you might want to think about deleting your account.

Think Carefully First

As with any decision, it’s worth thinking about whether you really want to delete your Twitter, rather than doing so on the spur of the moment. There are a few things you might want to consider checking before you go ahead and do it.

  • Think about who you talk to on Twitter, and whether you have other contact details for them. If they’re someone you want to keep in touch with, or may want to talk to sometime in the future, it’s a good idea to get some other form of communication established before you delete your Twitter.
  • Decide what benefits you get from Twitter, and whether these will be outweighed by deleting your account. If you depend on it for news, etc., remember you will have to get this elsewhere in future.
  • Consider trying a self-imposed hiatus to decide whether you really want to delete it. This only works if you have the will power to stay off it, and you might decide you’d rather just make a clean break, but it is worth thinking about.
  • Check you have anything you need saved to your computer; if you need Twitter to access certain photos, etc., you will want to back these up to your computer.

To Delete Twitter

Once you’ve made your decision, you will need to do a couple of things in order to delete your Twitter account. Twitter doesn’t offer a temporary delete, as many other social media sites do, but instead operate on a grace period. If you log in within 30 days of asking them to delete your account, they will reactivate it. After that, however, the account will be gone. If that’s what you want, follow these steps.

  • Open Twitter in a web browser and log in. You cannot delete your Twitter account on Twitter’s app – you must do it through a browser.
  • Click on your profile image and then click the ‘Settings’ button to take you to the settings page.
  • Select ‘Settings and Privacy,’ and then click ‘Deactivate my account.’
  • Click ‘Deactivate @username,’ and then re-enter your Twitter password. This helps Twitter confirm it is definitely you, and prevents your account being deleted as a prank or even as an accident.
  • Wait for the 30 days to pass, and your account will be deleted.