Many people are looking for how to delete Facebook and Instagram, and we would like their clicks

Apparently not everyone is ready to live in a post-truth world. Following Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Threads are ditching professional fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes-style crowdsourcing approach to accountability, searches to delete Meta accounts have increased significantly .

Searches for “how to delete Facebook” and “how to delete Instagram” have peaked in the days following the announcement that accuracy is no longer a priority for posting on the platforms, according to Google Trends data. Related searches such as “how to quit Facebook”, “how to delete the account of threads” and “how to delete the account instagram without logging in” also achieved the status of breakout trend, which means that they saw 5,000% increases or more in interest, as TechCrunch reported.

Additionally, Facebook’s competitors have also seen a spike in interest. Bluesky saw an almost 1000% increase in searches during the same period that saw people looking to get out of the Meta-verse of social apps. Zuckerberg accused people who left his company’s platforms of “virtue signaling“, presumably because he assumes everyone is as deeply unscrupulous and malleable as he is and wouldn’t do anything just on principle.

Alas, for those looking for a landing spot, there aren’t many suitable replacements for platforms like Instagram — or Facebook, for that matter — for people looking to leave those platforms behind when they transition into after the fact AI slop factories.

Zuckerberg has successfully captured the major parts of the social web, and escaping from his grip is difficult, especially when it comes to convincing people you want to stay connected to follow. Facebook loved success more than three billion monthly active users worldwide and Instagram has two billion. Want to chat with your friends? WhatsApp Meta-property has almost three billion active chatters and Messenger has more than one billion of his own. Even if you delete your account or never made one to begin with, Meta store data about you and continues to track your activity on the web for his massive digital advertising activity.

Of course, that shouldn’t stop you from trying to limit your exposure to the tentacles of the monster that is Meta. And just statistically speaking, since you probably landed here looking for something along the lines of “how to delete facebook”, the least we can do is give you what you’re looking for. You have your guide, we have a few clicks, and everyone leaves happy.

How to delete your Facebook account

A quick preface here: Facebook, through what could best be described as a deliberately ineffective user interface, has created a labyrinthine maze of menus that you must navigate to find the option to delete your account – and that maze it will be different. depending on the operating system, platform, and version of Facebook you access.

That said, if you’re on an iPhone or Android device:

1. Click the three-bar “Menu” button at the bottom right of the Facebook app
2. Tap the “Settings & privacy” heading.
3. If “Accounts Center” appears in this menu, tap it. If not, tap “Settings” and the app should redirect you to “Accounts Center” after a popup explaining its function.
4. Tap “Personal Details”
5. Tap “Account Ownership and Control”
6. Tap “Deactivate or delete”
7. Select the account or profile you want to delete
8. Tap “Delete Account”
9. Tap “Continue” and follow the instructions on the screen to confirm

If the Accounts Center appears for you, you should be able to delete your Facebook and Instagram accounts at the same time, assuming they are connected.

If you’re viewing Facebook on a desktop, the same steps apply, except your first step is to click your profile picture in the top right. From there, find “Settings & privacy” and follow the same steps as above.

Regardless of whether you are on the desktop or mobile applications, if the Account Center does not appear, do the following:

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above
2. Once in “Settings and privacy”, touch “Profile access and control”
3. Tap “Deactivation and Removal”
4. Choose “Delete Account” and tap “Continue to account deletion”
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to confirm

How to delete your Instagram account

If your Instagram account is not linked to your Facebook account, you can delete it separately in the iOS and Android apps by doing the following:

1. Tap “Profile” or your profile picture in the bottom right

2. Tap the three-bar menu “More” at the top right

3. Tap “Account Center”

4. Tap “Personal Details”

5. Tap “Account Ownership and Control”
6. Tap “Deactivate or delete”
7. Tap the account you want to delete
8. Tap “Delete Account”
9. Tap “Continue” and follow the steps on the screen to confirm

If you are visiting Instagram on the desktop, your first step will be to click “More” at the bottom left of the screen, then click Settings. From there, follow steps 3 to 9 above.