How to quit Elon Musk’s Twitter / X

As soon as upon a time, Twitter — now X — was the place to get your memes, world information, and popular culture. Nevertheless, even on the time, being an energetic Twitter person additionally required sifting by a every day deluge of poisonous characters, bots, and deepfakes. Then the Elon Musk circus got here to city and started steadily altering the previously common social community, to the purpose that a lot of its adherents started bailing by shifting to a number of of the brand new social networks, comparable to Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon.

Now that the 2024 US presidential election is over, Musk appears like he’s going to be not less than one of many powers behind the throne. Add to that latest adjustments which have made X less safe to use, and it’s no shock that there’s now a brand new wave of X customers looking to leave the platform. When you’re one in all them, right here’s some recommendation on deactivate your account.

When you’re nonetheless energetic on X or have lots of buddies and followers you wish to keep in contact with, it’s possible you’ll wish to make certain they know the place you’re going and why. A technique to do this is to first make your account non-public in order that solely your present followers can see your account.

• Look within the facet menu on the browser or faucet your private icon within the cellular app.
• Within the browser, choose Extra > Settings and Privateness > Privateness and security > Viewers, media and tagging > Defend your posts.
• Within the cellular app, choose Settings & Assist > Settings and Privateness > Privateness and security > Viewers and tagging > Defend your posts.
• Within the browser pop-up, choose Defend.

Now, solely the individuals who comply with it is possible for you to to see your posts and different account info. You’ll see a closed lock icon subsequent to your identify within the bottom-left nook of the display.

What you place in your “I’m leaving now” message is dependent upon who your followers are. When you’ve been rigorously vetting your account and know just about everybody who’s following you, you possibly can allow them to know the place you’re going and what your new tackle is in case they wish to comply with you.

If, however, you’re a preferred individual and will have followers who aren’t utterly reliable, you possibly can both inform them the place you’re going with none particulars — or, to be cautious, merely say goodbye.

How lengthy must you depart your account non-public earlier than you’re gone for good? Every week or so feels like a great size of time, however ultimately, it’s as much as you.

When you’ve been on Twitter / X for some time, you’ll in all probability have a backload of tweets that you simply may wish to hold in case there’s information you’ll need sooner or later or simply as a reminder of previous glories. When you haven’t been frequently backing up your account, right here’s how:

• Look within the facet menu on the browser or faucet your private icon within the cellular app.
• Within the browser, choose Extra > Settings and Privateness > Your account > Obtain an archive of your information.
• Within the cellular app, choose Settings & Assist > Settings and Privateness > Your account > Obtain an archive of your information.
• You’ll be requested to reenter your password and enter a verification code out of your registered e mail account, together with probably different verification codes.
• Choose Request archive.

It could take as much as 24 hours to get a duplicate of your archive; you’ll get notified each through the app and through e mail. You’ll get your information in two codecs: HTML and JSON. According to X, the information will embody:

…your profile info, your posts, your Direct Messages, your Moments, your media (pictures, movies, and GIFs you’ve connected to posts, Direct Messages, or Moments), a listing of your followers, a listing of accounts that you’re following, your tackle ebook, Lists that you simply’ve created, are a member of or comply with, curiosity and demographic info that we’ve inferred about you, details about advertisements that you simply’ve seen or engaged with on X, and extra. 

Okay, you’ve informed your followers you’re leaving, and also you’ve acquired your posts safely archived. Now it’s time to deactivate your account. Right here’s do it:

• In your browser, click on Extra within the backside left of the display. Within the cellular app, faucet your profile icon.
• In your browser, choose Settings and Assist > Settings and privateness > Your account > Deactivate your account.
• Within the cellular app, choose Settings & Assist > Settings and Privateness > Your account > Deactivate account.

There are a number of paragraphs of knowledge to learn earlier than you get to the deactivation hyperlink, together with hyperlinks informing you about what information should be obtainable after you deactivate your account, change your username, or change your present username to a special account.

You’ll additionally learn that your account received’t be completely gone after this course of — not less than, not but. X retains your info for 30 days earlier than deleting it completely. To revive your account inside that point interval, log again in and make sure that you simply wish to reactivate your account.

And keep in mind, if you happen to’re in search of social networking, information, and dialog, you’ve acquired a number of alternate options — or you possibly can simply come right here to The Verge. Don’t fear. We’re all the time right here for you.