Why shouldn’t you just delete your #twitter ? Abandoned social media accounts represent the same risk as abandoned domain names. Name #squatting works because reputation and influence gets attached over an account’s life -Those followers you spent time building up don’t just dissipate when you go. For a threat actor this is a huge opportunity. Some accounts carry more #influence than presidents. So if you stop using an account purge it, leave a last message, then securely lock it. (Please share)
@cj you may also need to keep up with changes to their policy on reclaiming inactive accounts --you might have to set a reminder to log in 1x/month or whatever to keep it active
@cj I have to do this - I deactivated my Twitter acct but now see I have not completed the work
@cj @garius also, after 30 days of deactivation your Twitter username can be used by anyone else, which is a huge problem imho

@gbevin @cj @garius

Somebody suggesting going back in and making a stub account with your old handle so nobody else could use it.

@cj how do you lock it down,?
@cj I had this happen to me years ago, when I rebranded at the time. Suddenly my old username was shilling pyramid schemes and scams. 😬
@cj If I'm a nobody who doesn't have to worry about someone wanting to impersonate me, would it be better for me to delete it to reduce the amount of users Twitter has? I imagine the total number of users is a metric they'd share with advertisers in addition to activity levels?
@cj Many people agree with you, but I am not worried that my former Twitter name will be used by someone in a way that will confuse people. I had almost 10K followers, built up over 14 years and I was not an "influencer". I was fairly unique. My Twitter world would not be theirs. And...see my pinned toot on oligarchs. I want nothing more to do with Twitter, so I closed the account.
@mtechman That assumes the threat actor is going after “high profile” handles.
I can assure you that quality of connections is often the currency they are looking for. Its the same reason ordinary families get targeted in social media #scams. #influence is relative, you don’t have to be Taylor Swift to be valuable. This risk increases exponentially when you factor in the use of well established handles for disinformation campaigns.
Anyway what do you lose by playing safe?
@cj your way is not for me, but for many, it makes sense