I used to work at Twitter, so I was able to request it internally. As I mentioned, you were only able to request a handle that met some strict 'inactive' polici

I used to work at Twitter, so I was able to request it internally. As I mentioned, you were only able to request a handle that met some strict 'inactive' policies. I left in 2012, so I don't have much context since then. The root problem is that you want to give handles to people who will genuinely use them. But if you open up any system for reclaiming handles, it's just going to be abused by people trying to snag and sell handles (just like domains). Since there was no obviously correct way to ensure only people who would use the handles got them, it was just done internally for people who requested it (and their friends).