Your Twitter account could be locked in two weeks: here’s what you need to do to stay in control

Elon Musk-led social media platform X has announced that it is retiring the Twitter.com domain on November 10. While the change would not have consequences for most users, a small minority of people could be locked out of their account if they don’t make the necessary changes.

​Notably, the X Safety account has posted a message on the platform that users who rely on hardware security keys or passkeys for two-factor authentication must register their credentials to the X.com domain before November 10. If users do not enroll to the new domain before the deadline, they will be locked out from their account.

​The company, however, noted that the new changes are “not related to any security concern, and only impacts Yubikeys and passkeys.”

​“Security keys enrolled as a 2FA method are currently tied to the twitter[.]com domain. Re-enrolling your security key will associate them with x[.]com, allowing us to retire the Twitter domain,” the company added in its post.

​“After November 10, if you haven’t re-enrolled a security key, your account will be locked until you: re-enroll; choose a different 2FA method; or elect not to use 2FA (but we always recommend you use 2FA to protect your account!),” it added.

​In case you have been living under a rock, Musk had purchased X in late 2023 and went on to rename the website to X, realizing his almost 20-year-old vision for the domain. Musk had founded X.com in 1999 and later merged the company with Confinity, which was later rebranded as PayPal. Musk and his co-founders exited the company after the eBay acquisition, but the billionaire bought back the X.com domain from PayPal in 2017, saying that it had a “great sentimental value” for him.

​How to prevent your account from being locked

​If you are affected by X’s diktat, you will have to re-register with the X.com domain in order to prevent yourself from being locked out.

​Open the X.com app or website and navigate to Settings.

​Go to the privacy menu and click on Security.

​Tap on Account access, followed by Security, and finally Two-Factor authentication.

​You can now add or re-enroll your existing passkey.

​In case you do end up losing access to your X account, you should be able to get it back by re-registering your security key, switching to another 2FA method, or disabling two-factor authentication completely.

​Two-factor authentication is a security measure used by individuals in order to improve the security of their account. A second verification factor apart from the password makes it harder for cybercriminals to access the user’s account.