HACKER Q&A
📣 alzad

Quora account deletion; at risk of LGBTQ persecution


Hey HN, I really need to get in touch with someone at Quora who can expedite the deletion process of an account I no longer have access to. The longer the account is public, the higher I’m at risk for LGBTQ persecution in my home country.

When I was younger, I naively started a Quora account with my real name and photo attached. I posted answers that reveal my LGBTQ identity. Right now, I’m being recognized in my (conservative) community for an accomplishment. Someone reached out to me saying they’re confused by the posts in my Quora profile and how they go against my national identity and (assumed) religion. If the person chooses to share this profile with authorities, I’m at stake to be persecuted and possibly lose on scholarship money that helps me stay in the US. The profile page is a top search result for Googling my name, which makes me even more worried.

I don’t remember the email address associated with the account and I tried enumerating through all the emails I remember owning—to no avail.

I would appreciate all the help I can get to delete the account. Thank you all in advance.


  👤 rvz Accepted Answer ✓
Luckily in European countries, there is 'right to be forgotten' or 'right to erasure' which you have the right to have your data erased by the service you registered to and can request it to be deleted.

US companies do not recognise this and can allow account deletion at their own discretion. HN, (based in the US) is the same. You cannot delete your account by yourself and you can only do that unless you contact the moderators.

But I guess you can have a look at this question [0] which may be the closest to answering your request. I can obviously see why your have these concerns since there is a risk of political witch-hunting. [1][2]

[0] https://www.quora.com/I-want-to-delete-my-Quora-account-but-...

[1] https://reduxx.info/witch-hunt-popular-video-game-distributo...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34318924


👤 nullish_signal
Have you tried making a new Quora account, and contacting them directly? If you can offer proof of identity (and Risk of Persecution), maybe they will be able to help. https://www.quora.com/I-forgot-the-login-email-id-of-my-Quor...