Facebook will take up to 90 days to delete all of your account data from its servers. For the first 30 days of that period, you can still sign in and cancel your deletion request. Your account will be restored and it'll be like you never left. For better or worse.

Commenting on the surge, Gizmodo suggested that “apparently not everyone is ready to live in a post-truth world... 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.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been building ties with the incoming Trump administration, said the move was an attempt to restore free expression on its platforms.

In the wake of Meta’s decision to remove its third-party fact-checking system and loosen content moderation policies, Google searches on how to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have been on the rise.

Media analysts discuss how to determine fact from fiction online, as Meta announces it will stop fact-checking.