Understanding Account Deletion and Relevant Dark Patterns on Social Media

Social media users may wish to delete their accounts, but it is unclear if this process is easy to complete or if users understand what happens to their account data after deletion. Furthermore, since platforms profit from users' data and activity, they have incentives to maintain active users, possibly affecting what account deletion options are offered. To investigate these issues, we conducted a two-part study. In Study Part 1, we created and deleted accounts on the top 20 social media platforms in the United States and performed an analysis of 490 deletion-related screens across these platforms. In Study Part 2, informed by our interface analysis, we surveyed 200 social media users to understand how users perceive and experience social media account deletion. From these studies, we have four main findings. First, account deletion options vary considerably across platforms and the language used to describe these options is not always clear. Most platforms offer account deletion on desktop browsers but not all allow account deletion from mobile apps or browsers. Second, we found evidence of several dark patterns present in the account deletion interfaces and platform policies. Third, most participants had tried to delete at least one social media account, yet over one-third of deletion attempts were never completed. Fourth, users mostly agreed that they did not want platforms to have access to deleted account data. Based on these results, we recommend that platforms improve the terminology used in account deletion interfaces so the outcomes of account deletion are more clear to users. Additionally, we recommend that platforms allow users to delete their social media accounts from any device they use to access the platform. Finally, future work is needed to assess how users are affected by account deletion related dark patterns.