Facebook has doubled the length of time it makes users wait before deleting their accounts, from 14 to 30 days.

The social network imposes a cool-down period on users who wish to delete during which they can reverse their decision by logging in.

The change comes as Facebook battles to contain the fallout from the cyber-attack that exposed the personal data of 50 million people last month.

A spokesman told The Verge: "We recently increased the grace period when you choose to delete your Facebook account from 14 days to 30 days.

"We’ve seen people try to log in to accounts they’ve opted to delete after the 14-day period. The increase gives people more time to make a fully informed choice."

Increasing the grace period would also make it more difficult for hackers to delete people's accounts against their will. Last week a bedroom coder in Taiwan promised to live-stream himself deleting Mark Zuckerberg's account, but got cold feet.

Facebook has suffered repeated scandals over its use of personal data, prompting some users, including Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton, to campaign to "#deletefacebook".