How to notify X (Twitter) when someone dies

X – the platform formerly known as Twitter – is where a great many people kept a public voice. A record of opinions, jokes, arguments, news reactions, and daily thoughts posted over years or decades. After a death, that account carries on: still visible to anyone, still searchable, still capable of being hacked. For some families, knowing what to do with it is far from obvious – particularly because X’s approach is very different from platforms like Facebook.

Unlike Facebook, X has no formal memorialisation feature. There is no option to convert a profile into a dedicated tribute space, no Legacy Contact system, and no way for family members to download account data. The options are simpler and more limited: you can request that the account be removed, or you can leave it as it is. This guide explains both paths clearly, along with the specific risks that families often do not find out about until it is too late.

Quick reference:

• Deactivation request form: help.x.com/en/forms/account-access/deactivate-or-close-account/deactivate-account-for-deceased
• Phone support: None – X has no telephone bereavement line
• Documents needed: Death certificate; your government-issued photo ID; proof of relationship or authority
• Outcome options: Account removal only – X does not offer memorialisation
• Timeline: No guaranteed timeframe; typically several weeks

Your options

X offers a narrower set of choices than most major social platforms. There is no formal middle ground.

The two practical paths are: submit a formal removal request, or leave the account as it is and accept the risks that come with an unmanaged dormant account. There is no option to lock the account in a protected state without removing it – that is the key difference from Facebook’s memorialisation model.

For context on how Facebook’s system works, including its Legacy Contact feature, see our guide to notifying Facebook when someone dies.

How to request account removal

X allows immediate family members and authorised estate representatives to request the deactivation and removal of a deceased person’s account. You do not gain access to the account – X will not share passwords or allow family members to log in. The account is reviewed and then deactivated.

Who can apply

X’s policy allows the following people to submit a removal request:

• Immediate family members (spouse or civil partner, parent, child, sibling)
• A person who is legally authorised to act on behalf of the estate – such as an executor named in a grant of probate

If you are a more distant relative or a close friend rather than immediate family, X may not process your request without formal legal documentation showing authority to act for the estate.

Step by step

1. Go to X’s deceased account deactivation form at help.x.com/en/forms/account-access/deactivate-or-close-account/deactivate-account-for-deceased
2. Complete the form with the following details:
   • The deceased’s X username (their @handle)
   • Their full name as it appears on the account
   • Your full name, email address, and relationship to the deceased
3. Submit the form
4. X will email you with instructions for providing documentation
5. Upload the required documents (see below) via the method X specifies
6. Wait for X to review and confirm the deactivation

Documents you will need

X typically requires:

• Death certificate – a copy of the official death certificate. This is the primary proof of death; informal evidence such as newspaper obituaries are generally not sufficient on their own.
• Your government-issued photo ID – a passport, driving licence, or other official identity document. This verifies that you are the person making the request.
• Evidence of your relationship – for immediate family members, this might be a birth certificate, marriage certificate, or civil partnership certificate. For executors, the relevant document is the grant of probate or letters of administration issued by the probate registry.

Scanned copies or clear photographs are acceptable. Keep copies of everything you send.

(Source: Contacting X about a deceased family member’s account – X Help Centre, last verified May 2026.)

Leaving the account active as a digital memorial

Some families choose to leave the account running rather than request removal. The profile, tweets, and media remain publicly visible and searchable indefinitely – at least in principle. For many people, this is a meaningful record and a source of comfort for friends and followers who want to read what the person wrote.

This is a legitimate choice, but it carries specific risks that are worth understanding before deciding.

The inactive account risk

X’s inactive account policy states that accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity – meaning no one logging in. The policy does not specify a fixed timeline; X has never published a precise threshold. Enforcement has been discretionary and inconsistent. Historically, X has announced large-scale inactive account purges via its @Support account, giving some notice, but there is no guarantee that a specific account will receive warning before deletion.

The practical consequence: an account that no one logs in to is at some risk of eventually being removed by X, taking all tweets with it. If preserving the content matters, relying on inactivity is not a reliable long-term strategy.

(Source: X inactive account policy, last verified May 2026.)

No formal protected status

Unlike Facebook, X does not offer a way to flag an account as belonging to a deceased person and shield it from inactivity policies. If you want the account to remain accessible and visible long-term, there is no official mechanism to secure that outcome. The account simply stays live until X removes it or until someone with the login credentials takes action.

Digital legacy and the tweets

Family members cannot download account data

This is a firm limitation with no workaround via X’s official channels. The data archive feature – which lets a user download all their tweets, direct messages, media, and account information – is only available to the account holder while signed in. X does not provide this data to family members, executors, or legal representatives.

If the family has login credentials for the account and can access it before it is deactivated or removed, the data download tool is available at Settings → Your account → Download an archive of your data. This is the only reliable route to preserve the full record. Once an account is removed – or once the password is no longer accessible – the data cannot be recovered.

UK law currently provides no compulsory route for families to obtain a deceased person’s social media data. There is no statutory right equivalent to those in some US states. The estate is bound by X’s own policies.

Preserving tweets without login access

If you do not have the account credentials and want to preserve a record of the tweets, the practical approaches are:

• Screenshots – manually screenshotting the profile and key tweets. Time-consuming, but reliable for preserving small numbers of significant posts.
• Web archiving – submitting the account URL to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine at web.archive.org. This captures public profile pages at a point in time. It does not capture media at full quality, and it may not capture everything, but it creates a time-stamped public record that is not dependent on X keeping the account active.
• Third-party tweet archiving tools – a number of tools allow public tweet timelines to be exported before an account is removed. These only work with public accounts and only capture publicly visible tweets, not direct messages.

None of these options require X’s cooperation or the account password. They work on publicly visible content only.

X Premium subscriptions

If the deceased had an active X Premium subscription (formerly called Twitter Blue), billing will continue until the payment method stops working. X does not automatically cancel subscriptions on notification of death.

In practice, when a card linked to the subscription is cancelled by the bank – which happens routinely when financial accounts are frozen on death notification – the subscription payment will fail and the Premium access will lapse. This typically happens within a billing cycle once the estate informs the bank.

If you want to stop the billing sooner, and you have access to the deceased’s device while it is still signed in to the X account, you can cancel the subscription via Settings → Subscriptions → Manage. The subscription benefits continue until the current billing period ends; no refund is available for the current period.

If the subscription was set up through the Apple App Store, Apple manages the billing independently. You would need to cancel it through the deceased’s Apple ID settings (Settings → [Name] → Subscriptions → X Premium → Cancel Subscription). If you cannot access the Apple ID, contact Apple Support – Apple has a bereavement process and can assist with documentation.

If you cannot access any device or account: Contact the bank or card company linked to the payment. Notifying the bank of the death will result in the account being frozen, which stops all outgoing card payments including the X subscription. This is often the fastest route when there is no access to the account itself. See our what to do after a death hub for guidance on notifying banks.

What to say on the form

The deactivation request form is short and functional. When prompted for context:

• State clearly that you are the deceased’s [relationship] and that you are requesting deactivation of the account following their death on [date]
• Provide the @username and full name exactly as they appear on the profile
• Do not speculate about private matters – keep the account information factual and straightforward
• If you are acting as executor rather than immediate family, say so explicitly and note that you will provide the grant of probate as part of your documentation

X’s support team will follow up by email. Respond promptly to their requests for documentation – delays in responding will extend the processing time.

How long it takes

X publishes no service level agreement for deceased account requests. Unlike some platforms, there is no stated target of 14 days or 30 days. In practice, the process typically runs to several weeks from the point of initial submission to final deactivation, depending on how quickly documentation is provided and reviewed.

X’s support is entirely online – there is no telephone number, no bereavement line, and no live chat for account issues. If you have not received a response to your initial form submission within two weeks, you can follow up via X’s general Help Centre contact options. Be aware that all contact routes are slow; patience is required.

Tips and things to watch out for

Dormant accounts are targeted by hackers

Inactive social media accounts with an established presence are actively targeted by criminals. Compromised passwords circulate widely on the internet, and attackers use them to gain access to dormant accounts and post scam content in the deceased person’s name – often appearing to offer financial deals to the person’s followers. If the deceased had a significant following or a recognisable profile, this risk is real. Acting promptly to either secure or remove the account reduces it.

Verify the username before submitting

X account handles can change, and the @username on an account may not match the person’s real name. Before submitting the form, confirm the exact current @handle of the account. Submitting the wrong username will delay the process.

X has changed significantly since 2022

Following the platform’s acquisition and rebranding, X’s policies and support processes have changed materially and continue to evolve. Help pages that refer to “Twitter” may still apply but should be treated with some caution. The deactivation form at the link above is the current official route as of May 2026.

No third-party shortcut exists

Some services advertise the ability to “memorialize” a Twitter/X account or retrieve private data on behalf of families. X does not offer memorialisation, and no third party can access private account data without login credentials. Any service making these claims is either misleading or using methods that violate X’s terms of service. Use only X’s official form.

The inactive account policy has no guaranteed exemptions

Search results and some guides suggest that deceased accounts are protected from inactive account purges. X’s own published policy does not confirm this. Families who want to preserve an account long-term should not rely on this assumption. If the tweets matter, archive them now rather than assuming the account will remain indefinitely.

Comparison with other social platforms

X’s approach is notably more limited than most major platforms. For context:

Facebook’s system is the most developed, with its Legacy Contact feature allowing someone to be designated in advance to manage the memorialised profile. Instagram offers memorialisation but no Legacy Contact. LinkedIn’s system requires formal legal documentation for account closure. TikTok, like X, offers deletion only.

For Instagram’s process, see our guide to notifying Instagram when someone dies. For LinkedIn’s memorialisation option, see our guide to notifying LinkedIn when someone dies. For TikTok, see our guide to notifying TikTok when someone dies.

Summary

X does not offer memorialisation. The only formal outcome for a deceased person’s account is removal, requested through X’s deactivation form with a death certificate, photo ID, and proof of relationship or authority. The process takes several weeks; X provides no guaranteed timeline and has no telephone support.

If the family chooses to leave the account active, tweets remain publicly visible but the account has no formal protected status and is subject to X’s inactive account policy – which may eventually result in deletion. Screenshots and the Internet Archive are the practical tools for preserving content without account access.

Key links:

• Deactivation request form: help.x.com/en/forms/account-access/deactivate-or-close-account/deactivate-account-for-deceased
• X help – deceased accounts: help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/contact-x-about-a-deceased-family-members-account

For a full list of accounts and services to notify after a bereavement, see our what to do after a death hub. For guidance on the platform with the most developed bereavement tools, our guide to notifying Facebook when someone dies explains the Legacy Contact system and the difference between memorialisation and removal.