For years, X (Twitter) has been thinking about how to free up neglected identifiers on its platform. Recent indications show that the social network will accompany this plan with a business model, to earn money in the process.
What to do with unused pseudonyms on X (formerly Twitter)? Should we release them after a while, if the people who previously reserved them no longer return to the social network? The question is not new: other services have already considered the question and decided. This is the case of Instagram, Yahoo, Blizzard (for WoW) and Microsoft’s Xbox Live.
Elon Musk’s property is also looking into it. However, according to information from Forbes, relayed in its November 3 edition, the option chosen by the platform is unusual. There is indeed a plan to release identifiers abandoned for some time, but this is coupled with an auction system.
The American magazine says it obtained emails demonstrating X’s efforts to monetize inactive identifiers — those that appear after the at sign on a profile page, for example. @numeramaor in the link that leads to the page: https://twitter.com/Numerama. It is this character string that is concerned by this project.
Details still vague
The outlines of this new policy are still unclear, but it is reported that potential buyers have been approached, on the condition of paying a minimum of $50,000 (around 46,500 euros) to initiate a purchase process. We do not know whether this is a systematically imposed entry ticket and, if so, whether it remains at this amount permanently.
A login release does not involve transferring ownership of an account to a third party. Everyone keeps control of their own. On the other hand, the person who used for example @telpseudo, but who abandoned Twitter, would instead see a new identifier, for example x1234567899876. A third party could then use @telpseudo on their own account.
If auctions are considered, it is plausible that certain identifiers will be the subject of bitter battles – to the great satisfaction of X, who will thus be able to have a new source of financing, albeit relatively random. Public interest in changing identifiers over time is difficult to gauge: after the initial euphoria, transactions could then fall.
The success of the operation will also depend on the existence of a participatory amount and its cost: $50,000 is an extremely high barrier, which will put many Internet users on the sidelines. If this amount is variable, the factors which will have an influence remain to be known: is it, for example, the notoriety of the account using the pseudonym about to be released?
The “relaunch” of abandoned Twitter pseudonyms is in any case an old subject on the platform. The social network was already talking about it in 2019. At the end of December 2022, Elon Musk did it again, affirming that this plan concerned 1.5 billion names. In May 2023, the owner of X spoke about it again indirectly, when there was talk of purging abandoned accounts.
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