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A few days ago, some Facebook users could not delete their accounts – the ability to do so just did not work. After VentureBeat contacted Facebook about this problem, an engineer managed to overwrite the bug.
Every few months, a new scandal on Facebook results in a #deletefacebook campaign. This year, well before the Cambridge Analytica train accident, I decided to document the process and I finally wrote a quick guide on removing your Facebook account (Note: As luck would have it, Facebook has increased the time needed to delete accounts from 14 days to 30 days).
It was in March. Two weeks ago, I received an email from a VentureBeat reader who could not delete his Facebook account. He claimed that others also had problems – no matter what they had tried, they simply could not delete Facebook.
I did not believe it at first.
We receive numerous complaints sent to our advisory service, ranging from basic IT support requests to outrageous requests. But this user told me that he had tried using three different browsers, his phone and at least one other computer. had contacted Facebook several times; and even considered using a lawyer.
I did my due diligence. The least I could do was help him remove his account.
Upon request, the reader was kind enough to let me log into his Facebook account so that I could see for myself. No matter what I tried and no matter which browser I used, the Facebook help page to delete your account would not load once logged into his account:
Disconnect, charge well. Reconnect, blank page.
Fixed for all Facebook users
I contacted Facebook and explained the situation. The user could not get anything beyond a simplified answer from anyone within the company. Since public relations representatives are supposed to come back to journalists to ask questions, we have made rapid progress.
After providing the Facebook spokesperson the user's email address on his behalf, the problem was finally solved. It turns out that the bug in question concerned people with accounts with "a large number of publications." When they were trying to delete their account, Facebook was calling the number of publications to delete. If the call took too much time because of the large number of messages, a blank page would be presented to the user and she could not continue.
The Facebook spokesman confirmed that the company was aware of the presence of at least one other user having encountered exactly the same bug, but did not provide an estimate of the total number of Other people likely to be affected. It's not easy to gauge this figure because most Facebook users do not try to delete their accounts.
Conclusion: Whether you're worried about the latest Facebook scandal (50 million hacked accounts) or trying to delete your Facebook account at some point and you're not able to get it working, there's now a stumbling block. less on your way. If you still have problems, please let me know.
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