Micro Blogging website Twitter has announced to delete accounts that have been inactive for more than six months, unless they log in before an 11 December deadline.

This will include users who stopped posting to the site because they died – unless someone with that person’s account details is able to log-in.

It is the first time Twitter has removed inactive accounts on such a large scale.

The site said it was because users who do not log-in were unable to agree to its updated privacy policies.

A spokeswoman also said it would improve credibility by removing dormant accounts from people’s follower counts, something which may give a user an undue sense of importance.

The first batch of deleted accounts will involve those registered outside of the United States Of America.

The firm bases inactivity on whether or not a person has logged in at least once in the past six months. Twitter said the effort is not, as had been suggested by some users on the network, an attempt to free up usernames.

In future, the firm said it would also look at accounts where people have logged in but don’t “do anything” on the platform.

Twitter’s current policy offers only deactivation of a dead person’s account once a trusted third-party – a parent has proven their identity.