Facebook’s advertising revenue depends, in part, on how many users it has to show ads. Losing accounts isn’t good for business, and the company was prepared to put up a fight.
I only found the option to delete my Facebook account–buried in the help center–with the assistance of Google. The instructions on the page suggested that perhaps we could take a break instead of splitting forever: “Please keep in mind that you won’t be able to reactivate your account or retrieve anything you’ve added,” it reminded me. If you decide to temporarily deactivate your account, however, Facebook will “save your timeline information (ex: friends, photos, interests, etc.) in case you want to come back.”