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(CNN Business) - Twitter has a message for anyone who doesn't do much with their account: use it or lose it.
The company on Tuesday warned users that they have not logged in for at least six months that their accounts could disappear soon.
"We are working to clear inactive accounts to show more accurate and credible information that people can trust," a Twitter spokesman told CNN Business. "Part of this effort is to encourage people to actively log in."
The measure will not affect those who spend time in the domain, but do not necessarily tweet much. Twitter defines activity when logging in and recognizes that “not all signs of account activity are publicly visible,” according to the policy guidelines described on its website.
It is not clear when exactly the accounts will begin to be debugged or how many users will be affected. The company said it is reaching "many accounts" that do not meet its requirements, but declined to share a schedule or estimate of the number it considers inactive.
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These controls will be executed over the course of "many months, not all at once," the company added.
It is not clear how Twitter will treat an account that is inactive because the user died. A spokesman said the company currently does not have a way to "commemorate someone's Twitter account once he has died, however, the team is thinking of ways to do it."
The drive against inactive users highlights a broader effort to order the platform. Twitter has disconnected a large number of users before, although for completely different reasons.
Policy makers have asked the technology company to take strong action against fake pages or sources used to spread misinformation and other abuses. And the company routinely removes spam or automated pages, and says its "focus is increasingly proactively identifying problematic accounts and behaviors."
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In January, for example, he revealed that he had suspended several networks of accounts that, he said, were potentially “connected to sources within Iran, Venezuela and Russia. And last year, he reported that he would remove tens of millions of accounts that were previously blocked due to suspicious activity after a report by The New York Times highlighted the proliferation of fake followers on Twitter.
While this last move would affect the company's general user base, it is unlikely to damage two of Twitter's most important metrics: daily and monthly active users. Like other social networks, Twitter numbers are carefully monitored by Wall Street every quarter to measure the company's continued reach and relevance.
Ahiza García contributed to this report.
