What Happens to Your Followers When You Deactivate Twitter?

When you delete your Twitter account, it goes through a period of deactivation. This option is available on the "Account Settings" page on the Twitter website; your account cannot be deactivated from a mobile device. When deactivated, your account is removed from the website but still available on Twitter's database. Your account information can be retrieved for up to 30 days after you delete it.

When you delete your account, you no longer appear on other users' accounts, either as a follower or as someone they're following. Your account will also be removed from lists. Users cannot interact with you on Twitter, and you will not see notifications if they do tag your old username. While most of your account information should be removed within a few minutes, information can still be seen for up to a few days after deactivate your account.

If you change your mind about deleting your Twitter account within 30 days, you can reactivate it by logging in using your username and password on a desktop account. You cannot reactivate your account on a mobile device. Once you've logged in and reactivated your account, your tweets, followers, and following list will all be restored as though you had never left. If it's been longer than 30 days, your Twitter account information is no longer recoverable. You will have to start with a new account.

When your account has been reactivated it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. In the first 48 hours after reactivation, your follower counts may fluctuate or be inaccurate. If after 48 hours your followers haven't returned to their previous level, contact Twitter support to see if there's a reason that our followers list is incomplete.