America Online Inc. has confirmed that it mistakenly deactivated a number of AOL Instant Messenger accounts this week as part of its regular cycle of opening unused screen names to new users. AOL, whose instant messaging service is among the most widely used worldwide, had begun releasing screen names that had gone unused when it snarled the accounts of some active users in the process, an AOL spokeswoman confirmed to eWEEK.com.
The Dulles, Va., company is working to restore the mistakenly turned-off accounts by Monday. "This week, we released a group of AIM screen names which was overwhelmingly comprised of just such abandoned screen names," AOL spokeswoman Krista Thomas said in a statement. "Unfortunately, however, a small number of active screen names was also inadvertently included." AOL typically only reopens screen names from accounts that have been inactive for about 12 months or more. AOL would not say how many active users were affected.