How you can stop 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. Nonetheless, even on the time, being an energetic Twitter consumer additionally required sifting via a day by day deluge of poisonous characters, bots, and deepfakes. Then the Elon Musk circus got here to city and commenced steadily altering the previously in style social community, to the purpose that a lot of its adherents started bailing by transferring to a number of of the brand new social networks, akin to Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon.

Now that the 2024 US presidential election is over, Musk seems to be like he’s going to be not less than one of many powers behind the throne. Add to that current adjustments which have made X much less secure to make use of, and it’s no shock that there’s now a brand new wave of X customers trying to go away the platform. In case you’re considered one of them, right here’s some recommendation on the way to deactivate your account.

In case you’re nonetheless energetic on X or have numerous associates and followers you wish to keep in contact with, you could wish to be sure that they know the place you’re going and why. A technique to try this is to first make your account non-public in order that solely your present followers can see your account.

• Look within the aspect 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 > Shield your posts.
• Within the cellular app, choose Settings & Assist > Settings and Privateness > Privateness and security > Viewers and tagging > Shield your posts.
• Within the browser pop-up, choose Shield.

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 screen.

What you place in your “I’m leaving now” message will depend on who your followers are. In case you’ve been fastidiously 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 well-liked 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 go away your account non-public earlier than you’re gone for good? Every week or so appears like an excellent size of time, however ultimately, it’s as much as you.

In case you’ve been on Twitter / X for some time, you’ll most likely have a backload of tweets that you simply would possibly wish to maintain in case there’s information you’ll need sooner or later or simply as a reminder of previous glories. In case you haven’t been recurrently backing up your account, right here’s how:

• Look within the aspect 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 might take as much as 24 hours to get a duplicate of your archive; you’ll get notified each by way of the app and by way of e-mail. You’ll get your information in two codecs: HTML and JSON. In keeping with X, the data will embrace:

…your profile info, your posts, your Direct Messages, your Moments, your media (photographs, 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 now we have inferred about you, details about advertisements that you simply’ve seen or engaged with on X, and extra. 

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

• In your browser, click on Extra within the backside left of the display screen. 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 still be accessible after you deactivate your account, the way to change your username, or the way to swap your present username to a special account.

You’ll additionally be told that your account gained’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 bear in mind, in the event you’re in search of social networking, information, and dialog, you’ve received a number of options — or you possibly can simply come right here to The Verge. Don’t fear. We’re at all times right here for you.