Delete It

The 10 best ‘delete your account’ tweets of Twitter’s first 10 years

By Jason O. Gilbert, Ethan Chiel, and David Matthews
Wikipedia Commons

Jason O. Gilbert

Jason is a contributor to Fusion.

Ethan-Chiel_b&w

Ethan Chiel

Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]

David Matthews

David Matthews operates the Wayback Machine on Fusion.net—hop on. Got a tip? Email him: [email protected]

By Jason O. Gilbert, Ethan Chiel, and David Matthews
By Jason O. Gilbert, Ethan Chiel, and David Matthews

Twitter reached the venerable old age of 10 today—happy birthday Twitter! You may be a stagnating social network with a harassment problem these days, but you’ve had good moments, despite people and brands (especially brands) routinely ignoring a helpful bit of advice.

What is Twitter really good for? Spreading information far and wide quickly? Deploying the Crying Jordan Face? Coffee Dad? Twitter is good for all of those things, and more, but it’s best for insults, specifically insults telling people to get off of Twitter, hard as that may be to accomplish.

In a short amount of time, “delete your account” has become the preferred response to tweets, usually made by politicians, that are tone deaf or out of touch in one way or another. These are 10 of the best from years past.

When Jeb Bush tweeted the word “America” to go with a photo of a gun with his name engraved on it and Edward Snowden responded:

When the Washington football team tried to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving with its offensive logo attached:

When conservative pundit Bill Kristol, who predicted a huge Mitt Romney win in 2012, offered his predictions for the 2014 midterm:

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When The New York Times suggested adding peas to your guacamole

When the official account of the New Year’s Eve Times Square Ball dropped the unfortunate hashtag #BallLivesMatter:

When Marco Rubio, for whatever reason, compared the illegal killing of Cecil the Lion to abortions in the United States:

 

When Bill Cosby broke a long Twitter silence to thank Whoopi Goldberg for supporting him as dozens of women accused of him rape:

After Dinesh D’Souza located the real victim in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri:

When Joyce Carol Oates tweeted this collection of words:

When this b.s. happened:

Five bonus tweets!

When a meme-maker used a GIF of a woman falling off of a cliff to describe Eric Cantor losing a primary during his re-election bid:

When Rand Paul(‘s staff) tried to make a joke about executive amnesty and text messages:

The handful of Delete Your Accounts handed out by the Chicago Cubs:

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When Rob Lowe tweeted “Oh, NOW France closes its borders. ” while the Paris attacks were still happening.

UPDATE: This record-breaking “Delete Your Account” from Hillary Clinton, directed at rival Donald Trump:

And this pure, beautiful distillation of the idea, from Virgil Texas:

Go ahead, do it, we’ll be right along.

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