Mass deleting PMs on Facebook Messenger and Instagram

Questions
1

I’m probably not alone in the fact that I use, or used extensively in the past Meta’s Messenger and Instagram PM functions to talk to friends, family, and even work accomplices. Where I live, Facebook Messenger is the primary mode of communication between individuals, so I’d be very thankful if there existed a way to delete most/all messages on my account.

I know that several scripts and extensions exist for Discord, but from my brief research I couldn’t find any on Messenger or Instagram. I understand that Meta may keep all the contents indefinitely anyways, but deleting (unsending) everything still would give me peace of heart, because currently I cannot afford to delete my accounts.

Does anyone here know of any methods to do that? Anything would be appreciated

2

Facebook:

Instagram:

3

You are not responding. OP want to bulk/mass-delete.

3 Likes
4

Sure, they can do that manually.

5

You need to use an userscript. I tried this GitHub - thoughtsunificator/instagram-dm-unsender: Userscript that allows you to mass unsend all your DMs on Instagram (tested) or GitHub - mahdixmohammad/instapurge: A browser script to rapidly delete Instagram DM messages and reactions.. Please, audit the code before using.

6

that is not viable when there are thousands of messages if not more or even hundreds for most, you need a mass delete tool.

To OP’s post, doesn’t facebook delete your messages when you delete your account? Finally you can try sending a data deletion (messages) request [GDPR, CCPA etc.] which would be safer

7

The issue is is that I still use my FB and Instagram because I need them to stay in contact with family. I can’t delete them, because when I tried to make a new one instead (to eventually get rid of the old one) Facebook asked me to upload my ID to “verify that it’s me”… obviously no.

8

I think it only works for Discord because the messages aren’t E2EE. Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs are supposed to be E2EE. Even when I look at redact.dev, their limitation is that they can only delete Facebook posts and comments.

If it’s possible to mass delete DMs via GDPR request, they would only do it for you if you intend to delete your account. I think you have to accept that you can’t have it both ways, have an active account and ask Meta to mass delete your DMs, especially if they’re asking for ID verification.

9

In my jurisdiction Meta doesn’t even E2EE Instagram DMs… Also, I have years of unencrypted convo history still sitting there on Messenger too… It’s horrible.

Maybe the best way really would be just deleting both of those accounts? Switching to some alternative? WhatsApp is still Meta, and the rest aren’t widespread enough here…