8 ms·

How to delete your Facebook account

117 points by battle-racket 2y ago

zjp 2y ago
I did after yesterday’s story. It’s only a matter of time before you don’t even have to interact with their AI tools to kick off them showing you yourself in generated content. No thanks! They make it damn obscure to find too. I had to click a direct link to the option from their help pages.
naturalpb 2y ago
Funny, I just signed up for a Facebook account this week after the news,having deleted mine in 2017. In my opinion, they are taking a step in the right direction. Clearly others disagree, which is their right. What isn't someone's right is to dictate truth, which is what Facebook will ostensibly do less of. Bravo
- lawlessone 2y ago
  That's great, what was it you were worried you couldn't say there?
  - rvnx 2y ago
    Depending on the website owners or influences there are always things you cannot freely say. Even here on this forum.
    - Pedro_Ribeiro 2y ago
      And what is that? Maybe I'm not deep enough into HN to know about this.
      - tokioyoyo 2y ago
        Eh, I'm just assuming OP holds views that a lot of people here disagree here with (thus end up getting downvoted), and writes it off as "not allowed to say it" here. That's usually the gist of why people complain about freedom of speech nowadays, regardless of their ideology. Yes, I understand there are billions of exceptions, and I understand how users get banned for "wrong think". But that happens literally everywhere, and all you have to do is to be loud enough to piss of the right people. Everyone wants to be liked, and search for the venues where they can express their views where they would be a part of majority. Basically the reason why people skew towards echo-chambers, in real and digital life.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        Terr_ 2y ago
        > That's usually the gist of why people complain about freedom of speech nowadays At least in lower-stakes online forums, what really grinds my gears is a lack of transparency, where a site or service doesn't explain the moderation or even hides that any action was taken at all.
      - rvnx 2y ago
        One example from yesterday of “what can’t be said”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630197 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630067 Or let’s say, it technically can be said, but you get somehow punished (flagged, downvoted, etc) so you learn not to do it anymore. The incentive is simply not there. There is a logic, the “community” flags to protect their own interests (financial investments, friends working there, etc). And since the community is from the same group, they defend the same interests. The more freely we can talk about a topic, the more genuine and thought-provoking interactions it can create (without intentionally hurting the others obviously). If you filter too much, you get this LinkedIn-bullshit and it makes a message board super boring, as you live in a closed bubble.
        datavirtue 2y ago
        Downvotes don't hurt me. They stop being a disincentive when there is no clear reason for them. It's often people just misunderstanding, misinterpreting or misreading comments and the replies keep flowing anyway. It's not like you get paid for getting upvoted and a making any kind of joke is usually the fastest way to a downvote.
    - rozap 2y ago
      Please enlighten us.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - naturalpb 2y ago
    I consume on social platforms, rather than creating. I was growingly aware of the platform's bias on the content I saw and opted out for reality (as close as one can get to it, anyway). The changes this week are a step in the right direction as other viewpoints are more possible, let alone tolerated.
    - DavidPiper 2y ago
      > opted out for reality (as close as one can get to it, anyway) I'm genuinely curious to know what about reality warrants "as close as one can get to it". In my experience, every time I close the browser and step outside I'm generally convinced that what I'm experiencing is real.
      - naturalpb 2y ago
        Precisely. As humans, we use our senses to discover what is true and to what degree. When online, there's always a reality distortion machine running; the question is how much distortion is taking place
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - Terr_ 2y ago
    That makes me think of the rejoinder: "It was for States Rights to do what?"
- juujian 2y ago
  Is this some kind of really meta joke or irony?
  - kps 2y ago
    > meta joke Is this some kind of…
- bobjordan 2y ago
  After living in China for 10 years and experiencing true suppression of freedom of speech, the desire of many here in America to silence others in the name of curbing "misinformation" is wild to me. I have no desire to replicate what they have in China here in America. Free speech is a precious thing on this planet. The only acceptable solution to speech one doesn't like or agree with is more free speech. Silencing people that you don't agree with is not something anyone should support.
  - mixmastamyk 2y ago
    Best not to confuse the right to "free speech," with others publishing it electronically.
  - brink 2y ago
    It's the cult of superficial thought. Hate speech is a small price to pay for the fight against censorship. But there is a not-insignificant amount of people that look at the hate speech, think it should be censored because it's bad, and literally think no further about the potential consequences of censorship. Yes, lies are bad and dangerous, but censorship is much worse and far more dangerous.
  - battle-racket 2y ago
    Yeah I think this subject is a lot more nuanced than what people like to admit. We shouldn't allow hate speech and misinformation to flourish, but what constitutes as such is in many cases subjective, and leaving that up to corporate oligarchs, or anybody for that matter, is a scary thought.
  - hmcq6 2y ago
    Misinformation is why we ended up in Iraq. Misinformation caused January 6th. As anti-maskers laid dying in their hospital beds they denounced the misinformation they had been fed. Lets not pretend that misinformation is entirely impotent. And let’s not pretend like the internet hasn’t exploded the reach misinformation. How about we settle for a middle ground where Americans are allowed free speech on American platforms but let’s not give foreign actors/governments the same freedom?
- petargyurov 2y ago
  This is a very myopic take on things. > dictate truth What about the damage done by the millions of lies that people post on the platform to spread their bigoted agendas? What about how these platforms' algorithms ostensibly promote hatred and shocking material? Just look at the Rohingya massacre [0] and tell me you're OK with it. [0] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...
  - naturalpb 2y ago
    Opting for community notes rather than provably biased fact-checkers is akin to massacre, got it.
    - bayindirh 2y ago
      That’s a shallow take. Opting for community notes without any fact checking will transform truth from facts to “loudest voice”. So, who can yell louder will be accepted as the flag of truth, which is very dangerous. Of course, if you like your propaganda well-done, Facebook will be a great place for that.
      - naturalpb 2y ago
        You're right, it's a shallow take in response to a straw man of my position. Clearly content moderation is a HARD problem and the decision-makers at Facebook know this better than almost anyone. They made a decision that presumably was in their best interest, of which I happen to support.
        louthy 2y ago
        > They made a decision that presumably was in their best interest They're making a decision based on political pressure.
        2y ago
- jsheard 2y ago
  Part of the pushback is because they are still dictating what you can say except for some very particular exceptions which give away their true intentions. You're still not allowed to call someone mentally ill as an insult, unless you're doing it homophobically or transphobically, in which case it's now explicitly allowed. https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3lf72fz3fas22 https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3lf72fz3fas22 If they'd removed that rule altogether then it could be handwaved as merely "free speech absolutism", for better or worse, but officially stating that certain minorities are acceptable targets of abuse that's otherwise forbidden is something else entirely.
  - pesus 2y ago
    Yup. The line about the "non serious usage of 'weird'" is another blatant sign of their true intentions. There's no reason to specify that unless you're upset over it because it was used against conservatives.
    - jcgrillo 2y ago
      Zuckerberg, Musk, Thiel, that Vader without a helmet looking Google bro Schmidt? Super fucking weird people. And not in a good way.
  - nailer 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - p1necone 2y ago
      "freedom of speech, but only if it's statistically common" is a very strange take.
      - nailer 2y ago
        [flagged]
        2y ago
redeux 2y ago
I deleted my FB account a long long time ago and then a few years later I wanted to make a new one for business reasons and they blocked me from doing so. I’m not saying don’t delete your account - I still don’t have one, but be aware that it may not be as simple as just creating a new one if you change your mind in the future.
- UncleOxidant 2y ago
  You couldn't use a secondary or business email account to sign up?
  - redeux 2y ago
    Probably, but I already didn't like FB. I was just doing it as a checkbox to say we were on FB too. Once they were actively hostile to me it was no longer worth it. As a matter of course, I try not to interact with hostile people or companies if I can help it.
  - TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
    In my experience, no. For all the bots that clearly get through, they have some pretty onerous algorithms at work to figure out if you’ve ever had another account. It seems to matter not whether you use a different email or IP address. The same name alone seemed to be enough for them to lock a business account I was trying to create. They’ve gotten a LOT more aggressive I think. About 12 years ago I created a second account in my own name for use exclusively with family, and never had issues with that one. I think that part of their risk analysis is that whatever risk analysis was performed at the time the account was created is somewhat sticky. Likely to prevent complaints about changing goalposts. Of course I don’t use any Facebook/Meta property anymore.
- james_pm 2y ago
  Same. I have Instagram and Threads accounts, but I tried to get Facebook back about 5 years after deleting it and immediately got asked for ID and then was banned with no appeal possible. I guess they take deleting your account very personally.
rozap 2y ago
I applaud the tutorial, but even so it's easier said than done. I deleted mine maybe 10 years ago, before they offered a hard delete option, so all you had to do to un-delete it was log in. Then, Comcast email (yes I used a Comcast email when i created my FB account in like 2008, whatever) got owned and so too did my facebook account. I started getting texts from friends the other week saying my account was alive and posting crypto scams. No way to recover it, since the email was gone. All the account recovery options (even though they have my current email) led to the same void, so now I'm permanently locked out. Facebook is scum of the earth.
- baobun 2y ago
  I can't delete my account because they blocked any access until I upload a passport scan (despite never IDing previously). Guessing it got triggered by switching IPs/proxies. Any appeal attempts went unanaswered. It does suck that I lost a bunch of personal connections and that they (illegally in the EU I guess) deny me rights to access and delete my data for years now.
  - oriettaxx 2y ago
    tell them you are from the EU: my friend was pissed and solved this way (choose France or Italy, the nastiest I've read)
    - bdangubic 2y ago
      as if facebook does not know he is not? :)
      - oriettaxx 2y ago
        at my time (3 years ago) I remember it was possible with some push (I remember I did not need a vpn)
  - amyames 2y ago
    When it’s in a status where they’re demanding ID it “should be” deactivated. Now they will delete the account after some time if if you refuse to give them ID. But they didn’t always do that, which meant they had your data and refuse to give it up. Basically forever. They’re not a great company and they don’t care about anything. You might be better off claiming you live in California USA and demanding they delete it under CCPA, than to try as EU Right to be forgotten or EU privacy. And that’s dismal too because your laws are supposed to be better than ours. You should be able to get a UPS store Mail Drop for a month or two while you correspond with them and or the California attorney generals office and raise some hell. Yes it’s garbage to suggest this but it works. They take ID and all that over the web to open a mailbox and “voila I live in California now.” If you have any friends online there , just ask if you can “live there” and get some mail there while you write letters to the AG and or meta https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa They *have to* comply with the California request. I had to resort to this to get Kinto Share to stop accessing my background and credit every year. (Another trash fire company that doesn’t care how much you beg threaten or cry.)
spencerflem 2y ago
I find it very easy to stay off their feed of algorithmic garbage, but unfortunately despite being (imo) less usable than Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace is what everyone around me uses.
- jilles 2y ago
  This is the only thing keeping me from deleting my Facebook account. I recently moved and wanted to sell some things. Listed about 8 things on Craigslist and got some shady replies. I listed the same 8 things on Facebook Marketplace and sold everything within days...
  - Lord-Jobo 2y ago
    Made a very fake account filled with very fake info, using a blurry profile picture of a random person on LinkedIn who looks very vaguely like me. Might as well poison the well if I'm going to have the account for marketplace
srameshc 2y ago
My instant thought was this was an article from the past and why is it reposted now !! Almost after a decade we are back to this headline again. Probably we will read something like this after another 10 years.
hagbard_c 2y ago
While I'm all on board with deleting Facebook accounts - and deleting Facebook itself - the timing of this push is odd. Now that Facebook claims to open up the platform for a wider view than just the desired narrative is the time to get rid of your account? Please explain to me how it was better to be held on a short leash than to be allowed to run out that leash a little bit. I never had a Facebook account and as such I can not delete it but had I had one the time to delete it would have been when they started censoring anything which went against the desired narrative - probably around the time of the SARS2 unpleasantness - and not now that they claim to have been too censorious and 'promise' to allow more free speech. The same thing happened when Musk turned Twitter into X which makes me wonder why some people are so eager to embrace the censor and shun those places where he was kicked to the curb (even if I don't trust anything Zuckerberg says on this subject, he has shown his true colours a long time ago and they are dark and unpleasant to look at).
- ruthmarx 2y ago
  Excluding hate, bigotry and wilful ignorance isn't being "held on a short leash", it's just excluding hateful people from spreading hate.
  - wakawaka28 2y ago
    That can be very subjective. Facebook tolerated groups where online dating users doxed and smeared each other. What passes for "hate" these days is ridiculous, and they only care about certain views deemed unpopular anyway rather than the entire set of awful content. Also on the subject of FB moderation, I distinctly remember seeing a photo in my timeline that was censored like adult content. I clicked it, and it turned out to be some Christian thanking Jesus for something good. Real hateful content, that.
    - hmcq6 2y ago
      > Facebook tolerated groups where online dating users doxed and smeared each other. This hasn’t been proven as the case is still ongoing. Also the plaintiff in this case got arrested last year for tax fraud
chikenf00t 2y ago
I deleted my Facebook account back in 2015. I was in high school and going through a deep depression/mental break down. I remember feeling so much relief as the days went on. I don't think I was ever designed to handle social media properly. I doubt I'm the only one either.
- eleveriven 2y ago
  Deleting my Instagram account has affected me in a similar way. I'm very grateful to myself for making that decision.
- dgfitz 2y ago
  I started college around 2005, when Facebook was still “exclusive to .edu college email addresses” and it was novel at the time, mostly because it was unfortunately exclusive. My 3rd year I trimmed my friends list down from 10k to 1k, people I actually at least remembered having a conversation with. The next I took it down to about 300 people, and realized “I see or communicate with these people outside of this website already” and killed my account. Best decision I ever made relative to the topic of social media.
- eccentric_bb 2y ago
  no one is designed to handle social media at scale. Our brains are calibrated to express empathy at different levels for finite numbers of people who are of a given proximity to us (emotionally and physically) — e.g. the smaller and closer the group, the more capable of empathy (and thus worthy of exposure to nuanced feelings and more frequent exposure) we are. Being bombarded with the thoughts and takes (especially when distorted in content and exposure frequency by an ad platform disguised as a social media site) of thousands of people — only a few of whom you can possibly know closely — is a recipe for mass psychosis.
gazchop 2y ago
Deleted mine after they refused to let me make a comment on an unrelated group that Gatwick Airport is horrible on a Monday morning. Figured the algorithmic moderation was terrible and likely to waste my time conforming to some narrow and undefined form of speech. Not allowed to make a rational criticism. Then two days later, rather than fix that, they announce the change to moderation methodology which has benefits to the highest bidder rather than the community. Smells like another cesspit like X in the making. Gone! Both are bad. The problem is the platform existing at this point.
- ChocolateGod 2y ago
  > Smells like another cesspit like X in the making. You act like Facebook isn't already a cesspit. Anyone who claims any mainstream social network site isn't a cesspit is being fruitful with the truth, they're the sum of humanity and humanity sucks.
  - gazchop 2y ago
    Oh there’s cesspits and there’s cesspits. Facebook at least had some small community groups and market place utility.
ruthmarx 2y ago
Before Facebook introduced the option to unsend or delete sent messages, you could only remove them from your view. Does anyone know if there is an option to restore them, so you can then remove them from the people you've sent them to? Before I delete my account, I'd like to make sure I delete as many messages I sent to people also.
elforce002 2y ago
I deleted my FB account six years ago, and I don't miss it. I use Twitter, Reddit, and occasionally IG (I don't post anything there).
dustingetz 2y ago
group fitness scheduling platforms use facebook login and disseminate information through their business page, if you hard delete your account you’re hard blocking yourself from local small businesses. what’s so hard about just not using it?
physicsguy 2y ago
I kept it and Instagram around for years for older relatives and Marketplace and then by coincidence I’m trying to cut back on internet use and read more so I deleted it over NY this year. It’s surprisingly annoying to do, but the worst thing is having to recover access to anything I logged in with Facebook for.
bibligabye 2y ago
I deleted my Facebook account years ago and recently tried to re-create a new one. I had to use a different email address but even after doing so and sending them a picture of me as requested, they won't let me re-create an account. Apparently my brand new account that I never used doesn't adhere to their community standards about the integrity of accounts. I asked them to review their decision and it was a NO... and there are no other remedies.
rajabtc 2y ago
[dead]

117 points by battle-racket 2y ago

zjp 2y ago

I did after yesterday’s story. It’s only a matter of time before you don’t even have to interact with their AI tools to kick off them showing you yourself in generated content. No thanks! They make it damn obscure to find too. I had to click a direct link to the option from their help pages.

naturalpb 2y ago

Funny, I just signed up for a Facebook account this week after the news,having deleted mine in 2017. In my opinion, they are taking a step in the right direction. Clearly others disagree, which is their right. What isn't someone's right is to dictate truth, which is what Facebook will ostensibly do less of. Bravo

lawlessone 2y ago
That's great, what was it you were worried you couldn't say there?
- rvnx 2y ago
  Depending on the website owners or influences there are always things you cannot freely say. Even here on this forum.
  - Pedro_Ribeiro 2y ago
    And what is that? Maybe I'm not deep enough into HN to know about this.
    - tokioyoyo 2y ago
      Eh, I'm just assuming OP holds views that a lot of people here disagree here with (thus end up getting downvoted), and writes it off as "not allowed to say it" here. That's usually the gist of why people complain about freedom of speech nowadays, regardless of their ideology. Yes, I understand there are billions of exceptions, and I understand how users get banned for "wrong think". But that happens literally everywhere, and all you have to do is to be loud enough to piss of the right people. Everyone wants to be liked, and search for the venues where they can express their views where they would be a part of majority. Basically the reason why people skew towards echo-chambers, in real and digital life.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - Terr_ 2y ago
        > That's usually the gist of why people complain about freedom of speech nowadays At least in lower-stakes online forums, what really grinds my gears is a lack of transparency, where a site or service doesn't explain the moderation or even hides that any action was taken at all.
    - rvnx 2y ago
      One example from yesterday of “what can’t be said”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630197 or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42630067 Or let’s say, it technically can be said, but you get somehow punished (flagged, downvoted, etc) so you learn not to do it anymore. The incentive is simply not there. There is a logic, the “community” flags to protect their own interests (financial investments, friends working there, etc). And since the community is from the same group, they defend the same interests. The more freely we can talk about a topic, the more genuine and thought-provoking interactions it can create (without intentionally hurting the others obviously). If you filter too much, you get this LinkedIn-bullshit and it makes a message board super boring, as you live in a closed bubble.
      - datavirtue 2y ago
        Downvotes don't hurt me. They stop being a disincentive when there is no clear reason for them. It's often people just misunderstanding, misinterpreting or misreading comments and the replies keep flowing anyway. It's not like you get paid for getting upvoted and a making any kind of joke is usually the fastest way to a downvote.
  - rozap 2y ago
    Please enlighten us.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- naturalpb 2y ago
  I consume on social platforms, rather than creating. I was growingly aware of the platform's bias on the content I saw and opted out for reality (as close as one can get to it, anyway). The changes this week are a step in the right direction as other viewpoints are more possible, let alone tolerated.
  - DavidPiper 2y ago
    > opted out for reality (as close as one can get to it, anyway) I'm genuinely curious to know what about reality warrants "as close as one can get to it". In my experience, every time I close the browser and step outside I'm generally convinced that what I'm experiencing is real.
    - naturalpb 2y ago
      Precisely. As humans, we use our senses to discover what is true and to what degree. When online, there's always a reality distortion machine running; the question is how much distortion is taking place
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- Terr_ 2y ago
  That makes me think of the rejoinder: "It was for States Rights to do what?"
juujian 2y ago
Is this some kind of really meta joke or irony?
- kps 2y ago
  > meta joke Is this some kind of…
bobjordan 2y ago
After living in China for 10 years and experiencing true suppression of freedom of speech, the desire of many here in America to silence others in the name of curbing "misinformation" is wild to me. I have no desire to replicate what they have in China here in America. Free speech is a precious thing on this planet. The only acceptable solution to speech one doesn't like or agree with is more free speech. Silencing people that you don't agree with is not something anyone should support.
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  Best not to confuse the right to "free speech," with others publishing it electronically.
- brink 2y ago
  It's the cult of superficial thought. Hate speech is a small price to pay for the fight against censorship. But there is a not-insignificant amount of people that look at the hate speech, think it should be censored because it's bad, and literally think no further about the potential consequences of censorship. Yes, lies are bad and dangerous, but censorship is much worse and far more dangerous.
- battle-racket 2y ago
  Yeah I think this subject is a lot more nuanced than what people like to admit. We shouldn't allow hate speech and misinformation to flourish, but what constitutes as such is in many cases subjective, and leaving that up to corporate oligarchs, or anybody for that matter, is a scary thought.
- hmcq6 2y ago
  Misinformation is why we ended up in Iraq. Misinformation caused January 6th. As anti-maskers laid dying in their hospital beds they denounced the misinformation they had been fed. Lets not pretend that misinformation is entirely impotent. And let’s not pretend like the internet hasn’t exploded the reach misinformation. How about we settle for a middle ground where Americans are allowed free speech on American platforms but let’s not give foreign actors/governments the same freedom?
petargyurov 2y ago
This is a very myopic take on things. > dictate truth What about the damage done by the millions of lies that people post on the platform to spread their bigoted agendas? What about how these platforms' algorithms ostensibly promote hatred and shocking material? Just look at the Rohingya massacre [0] and tell me you're OK with it. [0] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violence-against-rohingya-meta-owes-reparations-new-report/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-faceb...
- naturalpb 2y ago
  Opting for community notes rather than provably biased fact-checkers is akin to massacre, got it.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    That’s a shallow take. Opting for community notes without any fact checking will transform truth from facts to “loudest voice”. So, who can yell louder will be accepted as the flag of truth, which is very dangerous. Of course, if you like your propaganda well-done, Facebook will be a great place for that.
    - naturalpb 2y ago
      You're right, it's a shallow take in response to a straw man of my position. Clearly content moderation is a HARD problem and the decision-makers at Facebook know this better than almost anyone. They made a decision that presumably was in their best interest, of which I happen to support.
      - louthy 2y ago
        > They made a decision that presumably was in their best interest They're making a decision based on political pressure.
        2y ago
jsheard 2y ago
Part of the pushback is because they are still dictating what you can say except for some very particular exceptions which give away their true intentions. You're still not allowed to call someone mentally ill as an insult, unless you're doing it homophobically or transphobically, in which case it's now explicitly allowed. https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3lf72fz3fas22 https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3lf72fz3fas22 If they'd removed that rule altogether then it could be handwaved as merely "free speech absolutism", for better or worse, but officially stating that certain minorities are acceptable targets of abuse that's otherwise forbidden is something else entirely.
- pesus 2y ago
  Yup. The line about the "non serious usage of 'weird'" is another blatant sign of their true intentions. There's no reason to specify that unless you're upset over it because it was used against conservatives.
  - jcgrillo 2y ago
    Zuckerberg, Musk, Thiel, that Vader without a helmet looking Google bro Schmidt? Super fucking weird people. And not in a good way.
- nailer 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - p1necone 2y ago
    "freedom of speech, but only if it's statistically common" is a very strange take.
    - nailer 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - 2y ago

redeux 2y ago

I deleted my FB account a long long time ago and then a few years later I wanted to make a new one for business reasons and they blocked me from doing so. I’m not saying don’t delete your account - I still don’t have one, but be aware that it may not be as simple as just creating a new one if you change your mind in the future.

UncleOxidant 2y ago
You couldn't use a secondary or business email account to sign up?
- redeux 2y ago
  Probably, but I already didn't like FB. I was just doing it as a checkbox to say we were on FB too. Once they were actively hostile to me it was no longer worth it. As a matter of course, I try not to interact with hostile people or companies if I can help it.
- TheNewsIsHere 2y ago
  In my experience, no. For all the bots that clearly get through, they have some pretty onerous algorithms at work to figure out if you’ve ever had another account. It seems to matter not whether you use a different email or IP address. The same name alone seemed to be enough for them to lock a business account I was trying to create. They’ve gotten a LOT more aggressive I think. About 12 years ago I created a second account in my own name for use exclusively with family, and never had issues with that one. I think that part of their risk analysis is that whatever risk analysis was performed at the time the account was created is somewhat sticky. Likely to prevent complaints about changing goalposts. Of course I don’t use any Facebook/Meta property anymore.
james_pm 2y ago
Same. I have Instagram and Threads accounts, but I tried to get Facebook back about 5 years after deleting it and immediately got asked for ID and then was banned with no appeal possible. I guess they take deleting your account very personally.

rozap 2y ago

I applaud the tutorial, but even so it's easier said than done. I deleted mine maybe 10 years ago, before they offered a hard delete option, so all you had to do to un-delete it was log in. Then, Comcast email (yes I used a Comcast email when i created my FB account in like 2008, whatever) got owned and so too did my facebook account. I started getting texts from friends the other week saying my account was alive and posting crypto scams. No way to recover it, since the email was gone. All the account recovery options (even though they have my current email) led to the same void, so now I'm permanently locked out. Facebook is scum of the earth.

baobun 2y ago
I can't delete my account because they blocked any access until I upload a passport scan (despite never IDing previously). Guessing it got triggered by switching IPs/proxies. Any appeal attempts went unanaswered. It does suck that I lost a bunch of personal connections and that they (illegally in the EU I guess) deny me rights to access and delete my data for years now.
- oriettaxx 2y ago
  tell them you are from the EU: my friend was pissed and solved this way (choose France or Italy, the nastiest I've read)
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    as if facebook does not know he is not? :)
    - oriettaxx 2y ago
      at my time (3 years ago) I remember it was possible with some push (I remember I did not need a vpn)
- amyames 2y ago
  When it’s in a status where they’re demanding ID it “should be” deactivated. Now they will delete the account after some time if if you refuse to give them ID. But they didn’t always do that, which meant they had your data and refuse to give it up. Basically forever. They’re not a great company and they don’t care about anything. You might be better off claiming you live in California USA and demanding they delete it under CCPA, than to try as EU Right to be forgotten or EU privacy. And that’s dismal too because your laws are supposed to be better than ours. You should be able to get a UPS store Mail Drop for a month or two while you correspond with them and or the California attorney generals office and raise some hell. Yes it’s garbage to suggest this but it works. They take ID and all that over the web to open a mailbox and “voila I live in California now.” If you have any friends online there , just ask if you can “live there” and get some mail there while you write letters to the AG and or meta https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa They *have to* comply with the California request. I had to resort to this to get Kinto Share to stop accessing my background and credit every year. (Another trash fire company that doesn’t care how much you beg threaten or cry.)

spencerflem 2y ago

I find it very easy to stay off their feed of algorithmic garbage, but unfortunately despite being (imo) less usable than Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace is what everyone around me uses.

jilles 2y ago
This is the only thing keeping me from deleting my Facebook account. I recently moved and wanted to sell some things. Listed about 8 things on Craigslist and got some shady replies. I listed the same 8 things on Facebook Marketplace and sold everything within days...
- Lord-Jobo 2y ago
  Made a very fake account filled with very fake info, using a blurry profile picture of a random person on LinkedIn who looks very vaguely like me. Might as well poison the well if I'm going to have the account for marketplace

srameshc 2y ago

My instant thought was this was an article from the past and why is it reposted now !! Almost after a decade we are back to this headline again. Probably we will read something like this after another 10 years.

hagbard_c 2y ago

While I'm all on board with deleting Facebook accounts - and deleting Facebook itself - the timing of this push is odd. Now that Facebook claims to open up the platform for a wider view than just the desired narrative is the time to get rid of your account? Please explain to me how it was better to be held on a short leash than to be allowed to run out that leash a little bit. I never had a Facebook account and as such I can not delete it but had I had one the time to delete it would have been when they started censoring anything which went against the desired narrative - probably around the time of the SARS2 unpleasantness - and not now that they claim to have been too censorious and 'promise' to allow more free speech. The same thing happened when Musk turned Twitter into X which makes me wonder why some people are so eager to embrace the censor and shun those places where he was kicked to the curb (even if I don't trust anything Zuckerberg says on this subject, he has shown his true colours a long time ago and they are dark and unpleasant to look at).

ruthmarx 2y ago
Excluding hate, bigotry and wilful ignorance isn't being "held on a short leash", it's just excluding hateful people from spreading hate.
- wakawaka28 2y ago
  That can be very subjective. Facebook tolerated groups where online dating users doxed and smeared each other. What passes for "hate" these days is ridiculous, and they only care about certain views deemed unpopular anyway rather than the entire set of awful content. Also on the subject of FB moderation, I distinctly remember seeing a photo in my timeline that was censored like adult content. I clicked it, and it turned out to be some Christian thanking Jesus for something good. Real hateful content, that.
  - hmcq6 2y ago
    > Facebook tolerated groups where online dating users doxed and smeared each other. This hasn’t been proven as the case is still ongoing. Also the plaintiff in this case got arrested last year for tax fraud

chikenf00t 2y ago

I deleted my Facebook account back in 2015. I was in high school and going through a deep depression/mental break down. I remember feeling so much relief as the days went on. I don't think I was ever designed to handle social media properly. I doubt I'm the only one either.

eleveriven 2y ago
Deleting my Instagram account has affected me in a similar way. I'm very grateful to myself for making that decision.
dgfitz 2y ago
I started college around 2005, when Facebook was still “exclusive to .edu college email addresses” and it was novel at the time, mostly because it was unfortunately exclusive. My 3rd year I trimmed my friends list down from 10k to 1k, people I actually at least remembered having a conversation with. The next I took it down to about 300 people, and realized “I see or communicate with these people outside of this website already” and killed my account. Best decision I ever made relative to the topic of social media.
eccentric_bb 2y ago
no one is designed to handle social media at scale. Our brains are calibrated to express empathy at different levels for finite numbers of people who are of a given proximity to us (emotionally and physically) — e.g. the smaller and closer the group, the more capable of empathy (and thus worthy of exposure to nuanced feelings and more frequent exposure) we are. Being bombarded with the thoughts and takes (especially when distorted in content and exposure frequency by an ad platform disguised as a social media site) of thousands of people — only a few of whom you can possibly know closely — is a recipe for mass psychosis.

gazchop 2y ago

Deleted mine after they refused to let me make a comment on an unrelated group that Gatwick Airport is horrible on a Monday morning. Figured the algorithmic moderation was terrible and likely to waste my time conforming to some narrow and undefined form of speech. Not allowed to make a rational criticism. Then two days later, rather than fix that, they announce the change to moderation methodology which has benefits to the highest bidder rather than the community. Smells like another cesspit like X in the making. Gone! Both are bad. The problem is the platform existing at this point.

ChocolateGod 2y ago
> Smells like another cesspit like X in the making. You act like Facebook isn't already a cesspit. Anyone who claims any mainstream social network site isn't a cesspit is being fruitful with the truth, they're the sum of humanity and humanity sucks.
- gazchop 2y ago
  Oh there’s cesspits and there’s cesspits. Facebook at least had some small community groups and market place utility.

ruthmarx 2y ago

Before Facebook introduced the option to unsend or delete sent messages, you could only remove them from your view. Does anyone know if there is an option to restore them, so you can then remove them from the people you've sent them to? Before I delete my account, I'd like to make sure I delete as many messages I sent to people also.

elforce002 2y ago

I deleted my FB account six years ago, and I don't miss it. I use Twitter, Reddit, and occasionally IG (I don't post anything there).

dustingetz 2y ago

group fitness scheduling platforms use facebook login and disseminate information through their business page, if you hard delete your account you’re hard blocking yourself from local small businesses. what’s so hard about just not using it?

physicsguy 2y ago

I kept it and Instagram around for years for older relatives and Marketplace and then by coincidence I’m trying to cut back on internet use and read more so I deleted it over NY this year. It’s surprisingly annoying to do, but the worst thing is having to recover access to anything I logged in with Facebook for.

bibligabye 2y ago

I deleted my Facebook account years ago and recently tried to re-create a new one. I had to use a different email address but even after doing so and sending them a picture of me as requested, they won't let me re-create an account. Apparently my brand new account that I never used doesn't adhere to their community standards about the integrity of accounts. I asked them to review their decision and it was a NO... and there are no other remedies.

rajabtc 2y ago

[dead]