Skip to main content

Turns out ‘delete’ doesn’t quite mean the same thing to Facebook as it does to you

facebook
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sometimes we want to delete our Facebook history – maybe just pieces of it, or maybe everything. Perhaps you just want to start fresh, or you’re simply distrusting of Facebook with your information and want to get rid of old posts.

You’d hope that by clicking delete, your content is permanently removed. Apparently, that’s not quite the case. New evidence suggests that Facebook might not really be deleting the posts you think you’re getting rid of. In fact, sometimes these deleted Facebook posts are reappearing. 

empty Facebook Timeline
Image used with permission by copyright holder

A few users have discovered just how persistent Facebook has been. Laura (who withheld her last name) deleted her Facebook posts “one-by-one” in February 2012, fearful of the repercussions that Facebook’s new Timeline (at the time) might bring. In October of that year, she logged into Facebook to discover that all of her Timeline content had been restored.

Laura's Facebook Timeline
Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s not unreasonable to assume that this issue was a bug, but after the second time around when Laura had once again painstakingly deleted all her content, she grew more suspicious. “I deleted all my posts, likes and comments. I also deleted all my photos and albums except two profile photos,” Laura explains, telling us that her profile was clean with the exception of two photographs and a few basic personal details from the About section. Returning to her Facebook account months later, she discovered this month that her deleted posts popped up once again.

Scarier yet is the fact that this isn’t an isolate incident. There are other Facebook users who have encountered the very same scenario, with their deleted posts coming back to them. Also, there was an incident in which old posts were resurrected to the top of your profile as well. A lawsuit was filed against Facebook in Ireland in 2011 for this exact issue: 

“About half a year to a year ago I decided that I wanted to delete as much of my personal data as possible on my facebook page. I used an automatic routine that automatically clicked on all “X”-buttons (labeled “remove post”) on my Facebook page. The following prompt clearly states that the content gets “deleted” (see attachment 03). After the routine was running for a while, all content was gone. From this point on I was continuously deleting all new content manually. In two or three cases old content kept coming back to my wall after I deleted it weeks earlier.”

Facebook’s Terms and Conditions shed some light on why its users are experiencing restored content:

“When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer,” the Terms and Conditions page states. “However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).”

Even Facebook admits that your content is actually still there even if you’ve technically deleted it. However the content popping up for a second time for a third round of deleting is unexpected.

We reached out to Facebook about the issue, whose representative only pointed out Facebook’s Terms and Conditions page, and highlighted the fact that that when you actually delete content on Facebook, it only goes away if it’s permanently deleted – which is tricky. The problem with permanently deleting anything on Facebook is the fact that nothing is actually seemingly deleted. Just simply “deleting” content stores the content to a backup Facebook drive temporarily. As Facebook puts it

“Some of this information is permanently deleted from our servers; however, some things can only be deleted when you permanently delete your account.”

Deleting your entire account works in a similar manner. Users can “delete” their accounts; however accessing the account again reactivates the account.

They also made sure to point out that the issue may stem from a bug on Laura’s profile page, but couldn’t be sure without checking out her account. Facebook engineers however are on the case, and on a preliminary look suggested that a better way to delete content is not by going through the Timeline, but instead through your Activity Log.

None of this, however, makes it clear why Laura’s content is reappearing.

As hard as you try, it appears that you can never actually “get rid” of Facebook short of never having used it in the first place.

[UPDATE]

Per her comments below, Laura, clarified that not all her deleted posts were restored – though a great deal were. She also adds that when deleted posts and comments she did so through her News Feed, and that she missed some she thought she had deleted originally. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Francis Bea
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Francis got his first taste of the tech industry in a failed attempt at a startup during his time as a student at the…
The U.S. Senate really doesn’t like Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency plans
David Marcus appears before Senate Banking Committee

David Marcus, head of Facebook's Calibra, testifies during a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on July 16.

Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency had its first big regulatory test on Tuesday when Calibra head David Marcus appeared before the Senate Banking Committee. It didn’t go well.

Read more
Facebook now allows you to opt out of those ads that target your tastes
Facebook News Feed

Tired of seeing Facebook ads that aren’t relevant to you? Now you can not only opt out of ads from that company, but you can also see why the ad was shown to you in the first place.
This week Facebook started rolling out a new “Why Am I Seeing This Ad?” feature that offers a bit more transparency into why a particular ad might be showing up in your feed, Buzzfeed reports.
Originally teased in April, the tool explains why an ad is being shown to you specifically and also gives you information about how it came to be in your feed, for instance, whether it was posted by an ad agency or a data broker. There’s also information in the report on how to opt out.
To see the info, you have to click on the three dots at the top-right side of an ad and then select “Why am I seeing this ad?" from the drop-down menu.
From there you can ask to opt out of all ads from that particular advertiser, or take things a step further and ask to opt out of seeing ads that are targeting you based on websites and apps off Facebook.

You can tweak all of your ad preferences on Facebook by going to Settings followed by Account Settings, and then Ads.
The "Ad Settings" section will allow you to opt out of ads based on data from partners ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere. You can also opt out of having your name associated with an ad shown to your friends. For instance, an ad for The Chapel, a local music venue in San Francisco, might say “Emily Price likes The Chapel” above it when it’s shown to my friends. The idea, of course, being that your friends will be more likely to be interested in that ad because you have, in a way, endorsed it.
Facebook also offers information about which advertisers have uploaded lists to Facebook with your info included on it. For us, that list was almost exclusively businesses we've never heard of, which made it a pretty enlightening (and also a bit depressing) read.
Sadly, there's still no "opt out of all ads" button. That said, it’s a good idea to check out your ad preferences on a regular basis, in general, to make sure everything there is something you're comfortable with or at least something you're willing to tolerate. 

Read more
Instagram CEO says the app doesn’t listen to your conversations
instagrams new explore grid tempts you to open your wallet mobile technology applications

Instagram's CEO says that the app doesn't listen to your conversations — even though you may see ads related to products you were talking about with a friend, but never actually searched for.

In an interview with CBS News' Gail King scheduled to air Wednesday, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said ads that seemingly pop up right after you talk about products in real life are mostly "dumb luck." King had asked why she sees advertisements for products she never searched for while browsing Instagram.

Read more