Don’t delete it

As many people leave their various social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc, there is an attraction to make the grand gesture of deleting your posts, tweets, photos, etc. and then deleting the account too. It feels like sticking it to the platform owners or investors that there’s one less active user and account.

Marc Rogers posted this to his Mastodon account, which echos what I’ve heard from many recently too, that you shouldn’t delete the account;

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)