The social media giant Facebook has faced criticism in several directions, such as how it deals with the spread of misinformation on its platform or its strategies to protect your personal data.
Recently, social justice and civil rights groups have been urging consumers to join a national Facebook boycott, claiming the site has caused significant harm to American lives.
And last year, following the death of George Floyd, advertisers pledged to stop marketing on Facebook as part of a temporary boycott over the social network’s failure to eliminate hate speech.
Whether avoiding political turmoil or worrying about how your data is handled, it’s relatively easy to avoid Facebook if you’re ready to quit.
But before deleting your account, you should remember that a wide range of popular apps works by connecting to your Facebook account. Once you delete Facebook account, these apps may stop working, or you may need to create a new account.
Plus, if you’ve been on the site for a while, you’ll probably want to keep all of your photos, videos, and messages. Luckily, Facebook lets you download it all before deleting it.
Here’s how to delete Facebook account:
Table of Contents
How to Delete Your Facebook Account From a Desktop Browser?
This is probably your best option as it allows you to best combine the data download process and the actual deletion. But for those who have already downloaded their data, it is on the same level as the mobile experience. Here’s how to delete your Facebook account from your browser.
- If you haven’t already logged in to your Facebook account.
- Click the carrot at the bottom in the upper right corner and click Settings & Privacy, then click Settings.
- Click Your Facebook Information on the left sidebar.
- Click View next to the Deactivate and Remove section.
- On the next screen, you will get two options. You can either disable your account, which will hide your profile from everyone other than you, but will still allow you to use Facebook Messenger; Or you can delete your account permanently, which deletes everything.
- Select Permanently delete account.
- On the next page, you’ll be asked if you want to continue using Messenger (in which case you can’t delete your account – you’ll have to deactivate it instead) and whether you want to download your Facebook information. This information includes all your photos and postings.
- Once ready, click on Delete Account one last time.
- Once you delete your account, it will take up to 90 days for Facebook to completely delete your data. And if you log in within 30 days, you can restore your account.
How to Deactivate Your Facebook Account?
If you don’t want to delete Facebook because you’re afraid of regretting the decision later, you might want to deactivate it instead. Reactivating your Facebook account will make it appear deleted, and all content from the public site will disappear.
The key difference between deleting your Facebook account and deactivating it is the reversibility. If you decide to return to the Platform, you can reactivate it at any time to restore your friends, posts, and photos. Another major difference is that your Messenger account will remain active, and will need to be deactivated separately.
- Log in to your Facebook account.
- Click on the arrow in the top right.
- Click on “Settings and Privacy.”
- Go to Settings.
- Select Your Facebook Information from the left menu.
- Click on Deactivation and Delete.
- Select Deactivate Account, then continue to Disable Account.
- Follow the instructions to confirm deactivation.
Your profile will disappear from Facebook immediately, but some of your messages, such as messages posted on a friend’s wall, will still be visible. Your current friends will still see your name in their friend list, and people can still search for you to message them through Messenger.
If you decide to restart your account, all you have to do is log in again on any device. Otherwise, you’ll get most of the benefits of deleting Facebook without deleting it.
How to Download Your Facebook Data?
Before permanently deleting your account, Facebook recommends that you download a copy of all Facebook data about you on your computer:
- Click on the down arrow
- Select “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” > “Your Facebook Information”
- Select “Download your information”.
- On your phone, go to the Facebook app and then tap the triple bar in the lower right corner.
- Scroll down to “Settings & Privacy” and tap Caret.
- Select “Settings”.
- Scroll down to the “Your Facebook Information” section and select “Download Your Information”
If you decide to download your personal archive, be sure to keep it somewhere safe. It is likely to be a huge repository of personal information that you are unlikely to share with others.
Official website:- https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674