How to delete a comment on Facebook

While opin­ion­ated posts are certainly desirable across social networks like Facebook, every now and then users overshoot the mark. That’s why sometimes it may be necessary to delete Facebook comments – be it in­di­vidu­al posts or a bunch of them. Here’s what you should keep in mind.

Whether you’re using Facebook for business or as a private user, sooner or later you may come across a reply under one of your posts that not only con­tra­dicts your personal opinion but violates the rules of your profile. Un­for­tu­nately, insulting, ag­gress­ive or otherwise offensive messages are im­possible to prevent, much like spam or trolling attempts. Sometimes, the best and perhaps only solution is to delete all cor­res­pond­ing Facebook comments. This way you protect your profile while making friends and customers feel more com­fort­able.

Similarly, the reason for deleting a Facebook comment may be because you made a mistake in the comment. Perhaps you’ve over­looked an answer to a question and now it’s been answered twice, or your comment is simply no longer relevant. You should only delete your comment if the con­tri­bu­tion is truly obsolete or you delete the post trans­par­ently. Otherwise, you could be accused of in­trans­par­ency, which may reflect more neg­at­ively on you than the comment would have, par­tic­u­larly in a corporate context.

Generally, you decide what can and cannot be posted on your private profile. Deleting unpopular Facebook comments from a private user profile is the decision of the user and has no serious con­sequences. Ac­cord­ingly, you can remove your comments or those of others at your dis­cre­tion. However, when it comes to harmless verbal comments that you just find annoying, there is a better option. You can hide the Facebook comment so that it will no longer be seen or responded to. The author will be none the wiser. However, it’s re­com­men­ded to avoid using comment hiding too often to avoid mis­un­der­stand­ings.

Things are a little different in a pro­fes­sion­al context. In­ter­ac­tions tend to be livelier and customers often pay close attention to how a brand or company presents itself on a page or in a group. Un­for­tu­nately, this is par­tic­u­larly true when it comes to critical feedback. You should never delete factual criticism or customer com­plaints that arise as a result of errors or mistakes. Instead, address the comment and move along the con­ver­sa­tion to a protected space such as Messenger, where you can make a better effort to resolve the issue.

Deleting in­di­vidu­al Facebook comments is the right choice if comments contain mis­an­throp­ic or de­fam­at­ory state­ments, insults, threats, or third-party ad­vert­ising. Take screen­shots of content that fall under criminal law. When you delete offensive Facebook comments, it may also be advisable to briefly address and explain why they were deleted. In this way, you prevent ac­cus­a­tions of cen­sor­ship. Restate your page’s or group’s netiquette to indicate which content is un­desir­able to prevent future mis­un­der­stand­ings.

On a private profile, only you have the ability to delete all Facebook comments. On a company profile or in a group, the admin de­term­ines who gets the right to do so. In addition, mod­er­at­ors can be appointed who are able to remove comments if they violate group rules.

The easiest way to delete comments is using the Facebook app. The in­di­vidu­al steps are simple:

1. Locate the Facebook comment you wish to delete from the activity area.
2. Now click and hold for a moment. A new context menu will launch.
3. Click the ‘Delete’ option at the bottom to confirm comment removal.

Everyone deserves a second chance. However, if a user re­peatedly attracts attention by posting offensive comments, you should consider blocking them per­man­ently. This option is easier than having to delete all their new Facebook comments. However, don’t make this decision lightly. Be con­scien­tious in dis­tin­guish­ing between factual criticism and harmful content.

What should you do when you want to delete several of your own comments? Facebook has made it possible to delete multiple comments. The ‘Activity Log’ item and the ‘Manage In­ter­ac­tions’ subitem take you to a list of all your comments and you can delete them col­lect­ively without having to navigate to in­di­vidu­al pages to do so. This way you can clean up your profile in no time. After all, things change. Following a career change or the end of a re­la­tion­ship you may find it necessary to clean up your profile.

Deleting Facebook comments is always an option when there is no other option left. However, this step should be well thought out, as it cannot be reversed. In a pro­fes­sion­al en­vir­on­ment, it is useful to explain your decision for deleting a post.