Obviously, not everyone is ready to live in a post-truth world. In the wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, will ditch professional fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes-style crowdsourcing approach to accountability, searches for deleting Meta accounts have risen significantly.
Searches for “how to delete Facebook” and “how to delete Instagram” peaked in the days following the announcement that accuracy would no longer be a priority for posting on the platforms, according to Google Trends data. Related searches such as “how to log out of Facebook,” “how to delete threads account,” and “how to delete Instagram account without logging in” also achieved breakout trend status, meaning they saw increases of 5,000% or higher in interest. TechCrunch noted.

Fittingly, Facebook’s competitors are also seeing a spike in interest. Bluesky saw a nearly 1,000% increase in searches during the same period that saw people wanting to move out of the meta version of social apps. Zuckerberg accused people who leave his company’s platforms of “Virtue signaling“, perhaps because he assumes that everyone is as unscrupulous and flexible as he is and would simply not do anything outside of principle.
Unfortunately, for those looking for a starting point, there aren’t a lot of suitable alternatives to platforms like Instagram – or Facebook, for that matter – for people looking to leave the platforms behind when they switch to… After the fact Artificial intelligence factories.
Zuckerberg has successfully cornered large parts of the social network, and escaping his grip is difficult — especially when it requires convincing the people you want to stay in touch with to do the same. Facebook has succeeded in collecting more than Three billion Monthly active users globally and their Instagram Two billion. Do you want to chat with your friends? Meta-owned WhatsApp has approx Three billion active chatters Messenger has more than one one billion Her own. Even if you delete your accounts or never created an account from the beginning, Meta It keeps data about you and It continues to track your activity across the web she has Huge digital advertising business.
Of course, this shouldn’t stop you from trying to limit your exposure to the claws of the meta monster. And just statistically speaking, since you probably got here by searching something along the lines of “how to delete Facebook,” the least we can do is give you what you’re looking for. You get your lead, we get some clicks, and everyone leaves happy.
How to delete your Facebook account
A quick introduction here: Facebook, through what can best be described as a deliberately inefficient user interface, has created a labyrinthine maze of menus that you have to navigate to find the option to delete your account — and that maze will be different depending on the operating system, platform, and version of Facebook. which you are accessing.
However, if you’re using an iPhone or Android device:
- Click the three-bar “Menu” button at the bottom right of the Facebook app
- Click on the “Settings & Privacy” header.
- If Account Center appears in this list, click it. If not, tap Settings and the app will redirect you to the Account Center after a pop-up explaining its function.
- Click on “Personal Details”
- Click on “Account Ownership and Control”
- Click on “Deactivate or Delete”
- Choose the account or profile you want to delete
- Click on “Delete Account”
- Press “Continue” and follow the on-screen instructions to confirm
If you see the Accounts Center, you should be able to delete your Facebook and Instagram accounts at the same time, assuming they’re linked together.
If you’re viewing Facebook on desktop, the same steps apply, except your first step is to click your profile picture in the top right. From here, find “Settings & Privacy” and follow the same steps as above.
Regardless of whether you’re using desktop or mobile apps, if you don’t see Accounts Center, do the following:
- Follow steps 1 and 2 above
- Once in Settings & Privacy, click on Profile Access and Control.
- Click on “Deactivate and Delete”
- Select “Delete Account” then click “Continue Deleting Account”
- Follow the on-screen instructions to confirm
How to delete your Instagram account
If your Instagram account isn’t linked to your Facebook account, you can delete it separately in the iOS and Android app by doing the following:
- Tap “Profile” or your profile picture at the bottom right
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Tap the three-bar “More” menu at the top right
-
Click on “Accounts Center”
-
Click on “Personal Details”
- Click on “Account Ownership and Control”
- Click on “Deactivate or Delete”
- Click on the account you want to delete
- Click on “Delete Account”
- Click “Continue” and follow the on-screen steps to confirm
If you’re visiting Instagram on desktop, your first step will be to tap More at the bottom left of the screen, then tap Settings. From there, follow steps 3 through 9 above.
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