How to Delete a Facebook Account – It’s Harder than You Think!

I joined Facebook relatively late, in December 2011, and even then only because it was semi-mandatory for me at the time. I didn’t see true value in the platform before that, and frankly, even during those three years I had an account, I hardly used it besides the groups-feature (that I originally joined FB for). Following brands’ pages would have been convenient, but as we all know, only a tiny percent of users actually see companies’ updates, whether sponsored or not. Throw in the mix the continuously piling issues of Facebook’s notorious spying behavior, and for me the platform became just repulsive. For more info on how Facebook stomps on your privacy, check this must-read article “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook” by Salim Virani.

So this month the long-awaited opportunity finally rose for me (i.e. all responsibilities for different groups & associations were over) to delete my account. Turns out Facebook doesn’t want to let you go easily.

From your Security settings, you only get presented with the option to deactivate your account. This is not the same thing as deleting your account.

I couldn’t find a direct link to deleting my account from anywhere, so I head out Help section. Simple search “delete account” luckily brought relevant results, but oh boy, the way they presented that information:

In that wall of text you’ll see two links. First “download a copy of your info” leads you to a page where you can request the backup from all the data you’ve shared on Facebook. It took me about 10 minutes to get the email including the download link for my data backup, but then again my data was under 10 Mb in size. So if you’ve used Facebook extensively, that delay between request and actually obtaining the backup might be a lot longer.

The second link, that just reads “let us know“, is the actual account deletion link. Can you believe that? “LET US KNOW.” Not exactly the first thing one would be looking for.

THE ACTUAL LINK THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/HELP/DELETE_ACCOUNT!

Just to add an extra step to the already cumbersome process, you will have to input your password again and click cat pictures.

And then finally:

Congrats, you are free! Facebook gives you 14 days to repent and come back to the platform, but I advice strongly against that.

Thank God there’s still Twitter.