Pirate parties want big tech to preserve inactive social media accounts

Big tech can delete your accounts if they’ve long been inactive, but some organizations believe this process is killing the internet.

Pirate Parties International (PPI) released a case calling for account preservation in the wake of big tech deletions.

The non-profit and non-governmental organization recently signed on to the Stop Killing the Internet initiative, the sister of Stop Killing Games, which aims to protect digital rights in favor of users, not governments or big corporations.

In support of the initiative, PPI released its argument for preserving old accounts, whether they are social media or email, calling on tech organizations to “stop killing social media accounts”

While companies are responsible for complying with data protection laws and are required to delete accounts that have been inactive for approximately 2 years, PPI believes that account deletion is ultimately devastating for users.

The NGO’s primary argument is online autonomy and user control, and that privacy, user protection, and data regulation compliance are flimsy excuses to delete our data.

“Inactivity is a crude excuse,” and “social media services cannot be turned into rental models where you pay or lose access,” according to PPI.

To delete accounts over privacy protection when “users already face challenges with security issues,” seems like an unequal trade-off in PPI’s eyes.

But, for big tech companies, it is often the most convenient way to “secure” personal data.

Hackers love dormant data

Dormant accounts are relished by hackers, as they’re often full of data that the user has long forgotten about.

If it’s an old account, the user likely didn’t equip it with tight protections like multi-factor authentication and is unlikely to receive prompt security alerts if it is breached.

Social media accounts are particularly useful for scammers, who hijack old accounts to promote phishing attacks.

Dormant accounts have been described as “low-hanging fruit” for hackers, as they are easy to break into (due to widespread password reuse) and are often forgotten entry points, according to Security Magazine.

The concept of protecting something or someone by destroying seems paradoxical, but it’s one of the only solutions big tech jumps to – usually without the user in mind.

While protecting users from having their data misused might mean cutting off all access, this leaves those whose data it is in a tight spot, PPI believes.

Is it big tech’s fault?

The NGO equates social media accounts, emails, and online storage solutions like OneDrive, as “digital archives of personal and collective life.”

These archives function as a part of history, and automatic deletion “risks sanitizing or erasing this record.”

“The need to erase social media accounts overstates risks, underestimates user needs, and proposes a paternalistic solution that prioritizes corporate risk aversion and regulatory ideals over individual autonomy and real-world utility.”

In short, big tech is keen to delete your accounts to tick a box rather than address the needs of the consumer, according to PPI.

But while having 25 years of your life and thousands of dollars in games wiped from the face of the Earth might be disturbing, it’s not necessarily big tech’s fault.

In the case of Microsoft, the company “reserves the right to close accounts and delete or disable access to content on OneDrive” and other services, according to Microsoft’s service agreement.

This is the same for Google, Meta, and other major brands. Whether or not the illusion of permanence was created by tech giants is up for debate. However, this doesn’t change the terms and conditions a user consents to when signing up.

While “transparency” is all the rage in the tech community, there’s another potential reason why big tech wants to ditch your inactive accounts.

The motivation no one is talking about

While account deletions are a way for tech companies to comply with data protection laws, big tech is also struggling with access to cloud storage.

Companies rely on storage types like DRAM, SSDs, and HDDs to run applications, quickly access frequently used files, and store data that isn’t accessed often.

While HDDs, which are used to store less frequently accessed data, are usually cheap, manufacturers are hiking up prices due to demand caused by the AI boom.

Western Digital, one of the main manufacturers of HDDs, was estimated to increase its prices in 2025 by 10% up to 30%, according to SSD producer Oscoo.

This is, in part, due to the AI revolution, which requires an unfathomable amount of power and memory to run.

Therefore, big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and more are naturally looking for ways to maximize their cloud storage space.