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It's been a while (6-8months) since I DELETED my account, but I do remember separate options for delete vs deactivation. Out of curiosity I tried logging in again and received "email you have entered does not match any account". While I'm sure the account exists somewhere in the facebook database, it appears to have been successfully deleted.

Anyone else have similar results?

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Haven't ever had a Facebook account, but I've encountered the deactivation-deletion dark pattern before, most recently on Twitch.

I think, it's a matter of them being required by law (won't be the case in all countries) to have true account deletion, but then they try to deflect as many users as possible from actually deleting their accounts by having an account deactivation option and having it in a far more prominent place.

I "deleted" my account in 2013. In 2015, I was working on something that required a Facebook account, and I figured I'd try logging in again to see if it was really gone or not. I got a response similar to yours -- seemed to really be gone.

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