I have now left Facebook
I clicked on that blue button on the bottom left of that screenshot. Nothing happened. I did not get any kind of confirmation. What is supposed to happen – according to Facebook is “Enter your password, click Continue and then click Delete Account.” but I didn’t get to that page where I can do that.
This blog started to get neglected as Twitter and Facebook began to get much more attention. But I increasingly got more concerned about the direction that Facebook was taking. Not the people I was following or the ones who followed me (and those were easy enough to quietly ignore when necessary). More disconcerting was the attitude of Mark Zuckerberg as described in this Mother Jones article.
I did contact Facebook help and, of course, I didn’t get any.
So I have now removed the Social Media widgets from the right hand column, and I have also deleted Facebook, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) and Messenger from all my devices. When you are on a “service” which is “free”, you are the product. So simply saying you are not going to patronize the advertisers doesn’t actually change anything. Facebook still gets revenue for serving you the ad. Only by leaving Facebook can you change anything – but the first thing is that you will not any longer be going down that rabbit hole. If you miss the people you used to enjoy seeing posts from, there are other ways that you can contact them. And all the rest was fluff anyway.
UPDATE June 16
I am pleased to report that I have found a solution. I had installed a Facebook app called “Fluff Busting Purity” which ran as an extension on Chrome. Simply removing that enabled me to get to the account deletion. But then I discovered that the password – as recorded by Chrome – did not work. So I changed the password then deleted. I now have 30 days before the account finally disappears.
Stephen Rees's blog 
Facebook didn’t want you to leave, Stephen. I created an Author page and decided to remove it. It was not removed and instead, gave me a number of days (?) to make up my mind. Eventually it was removed.
I kept Facebook for my family contact, not so much for other social contact.
Miriam Hurdle
June 7, 2020 at 6:05 pm
I agree. My family is in the UK and US and Facebook was a way to stay in touch. But the way that Facebook is being used is deeply disturbing. And as long as we stay on that platform we are enabling that.
Stephen Rees
June 7, 2020 at 6:54 pm
Good for you Stephen. I am spending less and less time on Facebook these days. I will definitely never use it on my phone again. Once I took it off my phone I used it a lot less. Now once a week, but I could probably live without it.
Matthew
June 11, 2020 at 8:53 pm
It is worth noting that a boycott of Facebook by advertisers is being widely noticed. There is the option to deactivate – which is similar to the tactics of the people who used to pay for ads taking a month off to reconsider their options.
Either way, Facebook can be changed – but won’t be if Zuckerberg thinks he can get away with it. His current take is “they’ll be back soon enough.”
Stephen Rees
July 1, 2020 at 1:11 pm