A Lot of People Are Searching 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. 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 spiked significantly.

Searches for “how to delete Facebook” and “how to delete Instagram” 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 like “how to quit facebook,” “how to delete threads account,” and “how to delete instagram account without logging in” have also achieved breakout trend status, meaning they have seen 5,000% increases or higher in interest, as TechCrunch pointed out.

Fittingly, Facebook competitors are also seeing a spike in interest. Bluesky saw a nearly 1,000% increase in searches during the same period that saw people looking to exit the Meta-verse of social apps. Zuckerberg accused people leaving 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 simply out of principle.

Alas, for those looking for a landing spot, there aren’t a lot of suitable replacements for platforms like Instagram—or Facebook, for that matter—for folks looking to leave the platforms behind as they turn into post-fact AI slop factories.

Zuckerberg has successfully cornered major parts of the social web, and escaping his grasp is difficult—especially when it requires convincing the people you want to stay connected with to follow suit. Facebook has successfully amassed more than three billion monthly active users globally and Instagram has two billion. Want to chat with your friends? Meta-owned WhatsApp has nearly three billion active chatters and Messenger has more than one billion of its own. Even if you delete your accounts or never made one to begin with, Meta retains data about you and continues to track your activity across the web for its massive digital advertising business.

Of course, that should not stop you from trying to limit your exposure to the tentacles of the monster that is Meta. And just statistically speaking, since you likely landed 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 guide, we get some clicks, and everyone leaves happy.

How to Delete Your Facebook Account

A quick preface here: Facebook, through what could probably best be described as a willfully inefficient user interface, has created a labyrinthian maze of menus that you have to navigate in order to find the option to delete your account—and that maze will be different depending on what operating system, platform, and version of the Facebook that you are accessing.

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

1. Click the three-bar “Menu” button on the bottom right of the Facebook app
2. Tap the “Settings & privacy” header
3. If “Accounts Center” appears in this menu, tap it. If it doesn’t, tap “Settings” and the app should redirect you to “Accounts Center” following a popup explaining its function
4. Tap “Personal details”
5. Tap “Account ownership and control”
6. Tap “Deactivation or deletion”
7. Choose the account or profile you want to delete
8. Tap “Delete account”
9. Tap “Continue” and follow the instructions on screen to confirm

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

If you are viewing Facebook on a 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 if you are on desktop or mobile apps, if the Accounts Center doesn’t appear for you, do the following:

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above
2. Once in “Settings & privacy,” tap “Profile Access and Control”
3. Tap “Deactivation and Deletion”
4. Choose “Delete Account” and tap “Continue to Account Deletion”
5. Follow the instructions on screen 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 app by doing the following:

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

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

3. Tap “Accounts Center”

4. Tap “Personal details”

5. Tap “Account ownership and control”
6. Tap “Deactivation or deletion”
7. Tap the account you’d like to delete
8. Tap “Delete account” 
9. Tap “Continue” and follow the steps on screen to confirm

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