Facebook removes religious, political views from profiles

Social media platform Facebook will no longer show a number of information fields on user profiles starting from December 1, including religious and political views, addresses, and the ‘’interested in’’ section which shows users’ sexual orientation.

The removal was first spotted by social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra, who shared the screenshot of the notification Facebook is currently sending to users. As can be seen in the images, Facebook will continue displaying other types of info that users shared on their profile. Those who’d like to access their info before they’re removed will be able to download a copy using the link included in the notification.

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson for Facebook confirmed the change, saying: “As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we’re removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views, and Address. We’re sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. This change doesn’t affect anyone’s ability to share this information about themselves elsewhere on Facebook.”

While apps like TikTok and Instagram allow users to create relatively simple bios, Facebook has long displayed these more personal info fields on profiles, largely because it was founded in 2004 and people were far less conscious of online privacy and security back then. However, the removal indicates the company’s efforts to get rid of its outdated features.

The change arrives just days after Facebook’s parent Meta announced it laid off more than 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce, in order to reduce its costs.