How to Permanently Delete Your Reddit Account

Aug. 18, 2021

Reddit may be the front page of the internet, but that doesn’t insulate it from some of the same allegations that have long plagued othersocial platforms like Facebookand YouTube. There have been allegations of privacy breaches, data manipulation, and the spread of pervasive extremist propaganda on Reddit as well. So if you have had enough of Reddit, its questionable privacy practices, and the conspiracy theories, you have the option to delete or deactivate your Reddit account permanently. We have explained the steps to delete your Reddit account in this article.

We will show you how to permanently delete your Reddit account using the website or the (Android/ iOS) mobile app in this article. We will also tell you what your account deletion will mean for your Reddit data and how to request to download your data on the platform before calling it quits. However, to help you make an informed decision, we will start by telling you what happens when your delete your Reddit account.

Note:This article is about deleting your Reddit account for good. If you don’t want to go that far but want more privacy when using the site, check out how you canhide your online status in Reddit. Also, check outhow to hide the ‘Open in App’ popup on Redditwhen you visit the site on a mobile browser.

When you delete your Reddit account, your profile will be permanently removed from the platform. Theprocess is irreversible, and you will not be able to regain access to your account in the future. Unlike other social media sites,Reddit does not offer an option to disable your account temporarily, so be very sure before going ahead.

Reddit calls the process ‘deactivation’ rather than deletion, but unlike Facebook, which distinguishes between the two, there’s no such differentiation on Reddit.On Facebook, deactivation is temporary, and deletion is permanent. But, the deactivation process is permanent on Reddit. That means there’s no option to reactivate your account should you ever feel like doing so.

Once you delete your Reddit account, your username will no longer be associated with any of your posts or replies. However, all your comments will continue to exist on Reddit and will now have the username ‘[deleted]’. You can delete all your posts on Reddit manually before you delete your account. We have demonstrated this process in the last segment of this article.

Follow the guide below to delete your Reddit account using the desktop website:

Note:Reddit doesn’t let you delete your account directly from its mobile app. However, you can easily delete your Reddit account via its mobile site. The process is pretty much identical on Android and iOS. The screenshots in this tutorial are from Android, but rest assured, the steps look the same on iPhone.

Reddit does not offer a straightforward way to download your account data. Instead, you have to contact Reddit and request a download if you want to get hold of all your data on the platform. That’s in direct contrast to other internet sites and social media platforms, like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. They all have automated features to let users download their data whenever they want.

To know more about how to request a copy of your Reddit data, check out theofficial documentationon the subject. Do know that at least in the EU, Reddit is legally bound to provide you with your data to comply with GDPR guidelines.

You can remove all your posts manually by going into the settings menu on the Reddit website. Here’s how you do it:

Do note that, unlike most other sites, Reddit doesn’t guarantee whether they will remove the post even after your confirmation. So if you want to actually get rid of that post, first edit it with something gibberish or innocuous and then delete it.

In any case, even if you forget to delete any objectionable post, it shouldn’t matter. That’s because your username is no longer visible on any post once you delete your account. As you can see below, posts by deleted users do not include the username. Instead, it merely says [deleted].

Until recently, you could mass delete all your Reddit posts with a browser extension called ‘Nuke Reddit History‘. It was available for both Chrome and Firefox. However, the Firefox add-on has since been removed from the Mozilla repo. On the other hand, the Chrome add-on hasn’t received an update in over a year, and it does not work with newer versions of Chrome. It is still available (Free) on the Chrome web store, so you can check whether it still works on older versions of the browser.

Delete Reddit Account in a Few Simple Steps

If you are deleting Reddit because you are tired of all the negativity, then you probably ought to do that right away. However, if you are a newbie on the platform, do make it a point to check out the website to better understand what it offers. It hosts thousands of subreddits catering to just about any interest imaginable, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. You can check out somecool subreddits that you subscribe to on Redditvia the linked article. However, if none of that sounds enticing enough, this tutorial will hopefully help you delete your Reddit account for good. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a hiatus from social media, check out the steps forhow to delete your Facebook accountanddelete your TikTok accountas well.

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