If you have a bunch of embarrassing old Facebook posts (and who doesn't?), the social networking giant is making it easier to delete them, individually and bulk batch. Facebook is rolling out a new tool called Manage Activity to allow users to "curate your presence on Facebook to more accurately reflect who you are today," the company said in an announcement.
Many Facebook users have been on the platform for years and likely have status posts, photos and videos that haven't aged well. With the new feature, they can manage all of their posts and use filters to search for posts from certain date ranges, that mention certain people or are a certain content type. No longer will they need to manually scroll through their feeds to find regrettable posts.
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Then, users can delete the posts individually or in a large batch. They will also have the option to archive posts, so they're only viewable to them. Deleted posts will go to the trash, where they'll stick around for 30 days before getting wiped (or possibly restored).
Old social media posts can be a bane to people when they resurface during job interviews or in other public ways (they've taken down quite a few celebrities). Even if the content is innocuous, an out-of-context joke or complaint on Facebook could be the reason an employer doesn't hire someone — or fires them. Beyond that, old posts can also be used for harassment or doxxing.
Facebook has long faced criticism about its privacy standards. They've made strides in recent years in giving users greater control over their own content and this deletion tool is yet another step forward
The Manage Activity feature will roll out starting today to some users on the Facebook mobile app and then go wider in coming days. It will be available on the desktop version of Facebook some time in the future.
