Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen explosive rises in the U.S. since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would end its third-party fact-checking system, loosen content moderation policies, and roll back previous limits to the amount of political content in user feeds.
Experts see the move as an attempt to cater to the incoming Trump administration and avoid political retaliation.
Meta’s new policies could have serious implications for the types of posts, hateful and violent speech, and misinformation that can spread even faster than they already do across Meta’s platforms.
The backlash has been swift. Interest in searches related to getting off Meta platforms soared this week, particularly in the last two days.
Google searches for terms like “how to permanently delete Facebook” hit a maximum score of 100, the highest level of interest possible on Google Trends.
According to Google Trends, related searches like “how to delete all photos Facebook,” “alternative to Facebook,” “how to quit Facebook,” “how to delete threads account,” and “how to delete Instagram account without logging in” have become breakout searches, with popularity suddenly increasing by over 5,000% compared to previous periods.
The explosive growth underscores a recoil against Meta’s decision to roll back protections against hateful speech and inflammatory political content.
Meta had put fact-checking and content moderation policies into place after years of misinformation and violent speech proliferating on its platforms, which have caused real-world harm.
