After weakening moderation, there was a mass exodus of users from Facebook and Instagram

Google has seen a sharp increase in the statistics of requests for deleting Facebook✴, Instagram✴ and Threads accounts. This comes after Meta✴ CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company’s social networks would radically revamp their fact-checking mechanism, weaken moderation standards, and lift previous restrictions on the presence of political content.

Image source: BoliviaInteligente / unsplash.com

It is believed that this move is an attempt to please the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump and avoid political retribution. Social media users dissatisfied with Zuckerberg’s initiative believe that this could lead to an increase in the presence of offensive language and misinformation on the platforms.

Hereinafter image source: Google Trends

Over the past two days, interest in searching for information related to leaving the Meta✴ platforms has sharply increased: group requests for “how to delete all photos on Facebook✴”, “alternative to Facebook✴”, “how to delete a Threads account” and “how to delete an account Instagram✴ without login” scored the maximum 100 points in Google Trends. Their popularity has increased by more than 5000% compared to previous requests.

After years of spreading misinformation and hate speech on Facebook✴ and Instagram✴, the company that owns the platforms has introduced fact-checking and strict content moderation policies. On the eve of the change of power in the White House, Zuckerberg described the new policy as an attempt to restore freedom of speech in the social networks Meta✴, almost repeating Elon Musk’s statements in X. Instead of outside experts, fact-checking on Facebook✴ and Instagram✴ will be carried out by a community of users.

Google has also seen a sharp increase in searches for “alternatives to Facebook✴,” as well as decentralized platforms Bluesky and Mastodon, whose popularity began to grow after the purchase of Twitter (now X) by Elon Musk.