How to Safely Close Your Twitter Account and Download Your Data

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The arrival of Elon Musk to Twitter has prompted some users to explore free alternatives within the Fediverse, including Instagram Threads. Unfortunately, there is currently no method to transfer all your Twitter content to another social network. However, the European Union is working on making this possible in the future. If you wish to close your Twitter account, here’s how to do it and download your data:

Download Your Twitter Content

  1. Visit the Twitter website and access the configuration options by clicking on More options > Settings and support > Privacy settings.
  2. In the “Your account” section, click on “Download a file with your data.”
  3. Click on the “Request file” option.

Unlike Facebook or Instagram, you cannot select the format in which you want to access your Twitter information. Twitter typically provides the data in HTML and JSON formats, but this may vary.

How to Close Your Twitter Account

Please note that you can only close your Twitter account using a desktop web browser:

  1. Visit the Twitter website and click on More options.
  2. Select “Settings and support” and then choose “Settings and privacy.”
  3. In the “Your account” section, access the right panel and select “Deactivate your account.”
  4. Enter your account password to confirm ownership.
  5. You will receive a 6-digit code in the email associated with your Twitter account. Enter this code on the Twitter website to proceed.
  6. Click on the “Deactivate” option.

Twitter will inform you that you have up to 30 days to recover your account if you change your mind. After this period, you won’t be able to recover the account or its associated content, so it’s important to download any data you want to keep before this deadline.

Recovering a Deleted Twitter Account

If you change your mind within the 30-day recovery period, you can fully restore your Twitter account, including all the content and your username. To cancel the countdown, simply log back into Twitter using the mobile app or any web browser. Twitter will understand that you wish to recover the account and will cancel the countdown automatically.

If you decide to close your account again after recovering it, you can follow the same steps outlined in the previous section.