What happens to social media accounts after death – 04/14/2024 – Tech

“Some people don’t know that Matthew has passed away, they still see his birthday and write congratulations on his profile. It’s not particularly pleasant.”

Hayley Smith’s husband Matthew died of cancer, aged 33, more than two years ago. And she still struggles with what to do with his social media accounts.

“I tried to turn Matthew’s Facebook account into a memorial page, and what it asks is that you send in his death certificate,” says the UK-based charity professional.

“I’ve done this over 20 times and it just doesn’t work — nothing happens. I don’t have the energy to contact Facebook and try to resolve the issue.”

What is a memorial account?

With the advancement of technology and billions of people around the world using social media platforms, what happens to someone’s online presence after their death has become a big topic.

Accounts remain alive and active unless a relative informs the social media platform in question that the person has passed away.

Some platforms offer the option of closing the profile after official notification of death by a family member, while others offer alternatives.

For example, when Meta — the company that owns Facebook and Instagram — receives a death certificate, the deceased person’s account may be deleted or turned into a “memorial” page — meaning the account would be frozen in time and converted into a user keepsake page, allowing people to post photos and memories.

An in memoriam message appears next to the user’s name, and no one will be able to log in to the account if the original user has not previously provided a “legacy contact” — a family member or friend authorized to manage content or request deactivation. profile.

On Facebook, memorialized accounts are not recommended to potential online friends as “People You May Know,” and users on the deceased person’s friends list will not receive birthday notification.

Google, the owner of YouTube, Gmail and Google Photos, offers the option to change “inactive account” settings to decide what will happen to accounts and data once they are inactive for a certain period of time.

OX (formerly Twitter) does not offer the option of keeping the profile in memory of the owner and it is only possible to deactivate the account in the event of the owner’s death or inability to use it.

“There are several approaches, but all companies prioritize the privacy of the deceased,” says Joe Tidy, technology correspondent for the BBC World Service.

“No login details will be shared, and you will only be able to access certain data, such as photos and videos, with specific requests that sometimes require a court order.”

Newer social platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, however, do not have specific paths.

Should we prepare a digital legacy?

Active profiles of deceased users can pose a problem if data, photos or other content falls into the wrong hands, warns Sasa Zivanovic, a cybercrime expert and former head of the high-tech crime department at the Serbian Interior Ministry.

This can happen by downloading some profile data, but also by taking control of the entire account.

“Photographs, data and videos can be used to create fake accounts with a false name, extort money from acquaintances and friends who do not know that the person in question has passed away,” he states.

James Norris, president of the Digital Legacy Association UK, highlights that it is important for everyone to think about the content they share on social media and back it up whenever possible.

He points out that on Facebook, for example, you can download a complete archive of your photos and videos and pass them on to your family.

“So if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness and I had a young child who wasn’t on Facebook, I could download all my photos and videos, remove the messages — because I wouldn’t want my child to see my private messages —, select my favorite photos and write a story about each one,” he says.

He believes planning what you want to happen to your social media accounts after your death is crucial and advises people to prepare a digital legacy.

“Ultimately, social networks are a business. These platforms are not the guardians of your digital legacy”, he states. “The guardian of your digital legacy is you.”

Still, he believes social media platforms could make the process easier for grieving relatives.

“Actions like raising awareness about what the platform offers and what tools are available are important because not everyone knows they exist,” he says.

‘Digital legacy is not just about social networks’

“Digital legacy is a big topic,” warns Sarah Atanley, nurse researcher at Marie Curie, a UK-based charity that provides care and support for people with terminal illnesses and their loved ones.

She emphasizes that people need to think not just about their social media accounts, but about everything they have digitally and what to do with this material in the event of their death.

“Digital photographs and videos can contain a lot of memories. But today we do a lot of financial management online, in terms of banking services,” she says.

“Then there are music accounts generated to create playlists, and we’ve seen an increase in the use of online games, where people put a lot of time and effort into creating their avatars and living in an online environment.

“So I think it’s worth saying that digital legacy isn’t just about social media.”

She agrees that it’s important to start thinking about what we own digitally and what we want to happen with the material.

“Do we want someone to take control of our social media accounts? Do we want someone to honor us? Do we want to be able to pass down a digital photo album to our children? Or do we want to print it like people used to do and have a nice printed photo album that we can pass on to someone after we die? Digital legacy is definitely something that needs to be thought about and talked about.”

For Hayley and Matthew, however, this was not an easy topic to discuss.

“I didn’t really talk to Matt about it when he was in his final days, because he didn’t really want to talk about the death,” she says.

“He wanted to live as long as he could, but then he became seriously ill. He wasn’t himself. So he wasn’t able to answer my questions.”

They had been married for just over a year when Matthew was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in July 2016 at the age of 28.

“Your life is about to change forever and not for the better,” said the doctor, announcing that Matthew had a brain tumor and that he immediately needed surgery to save his life.

Although the surgery and chemotherapy went well, over time the tumor grew again and Matthew was told he only had one year to live.

“His name was on everything. On our accounts, on absolutely everything I had,” says Hayley.

“I had to transfer everything and it was very difficult. It took me almost 18 months to do all the digital administration that needed to be done.”

She says she still wants to turn Matthew’s Facebook page into a memorial, but is not pursuing that at the moment.

“I think it’s very painful to constantly look at a document that’s a death certificate. That’s why I’ve avoided doing that, because it’s a horrible little piece of paper. I just think it’s really an overly complicated process and that companies should make it very painful.” make it easier for the bereaved”, he concludes.