Social Media Accounts
One of the hardest parts of death is dispersing the deceased’s belongings and removing their name from accounts. It feels like you’re erasing their existence. Social media accounts, especially of those who were active posters, can be especially hard because it can be a documentation of many elements of their lives. In this week’s tip, we’ll discuss how different platforms deal with the accounts of those who have died and what you can do now to make it easier for you and your family to be a part of that process when needed.
Facebook offers two options for a deceased’s account – memorialization or removal.
A memorialized account will say “Remembering” next to the person’s profile picture while allowing friends to see photos and read posts. Depending on the privacy settings of the deceased, friends are also able to post new memories on the page. Nobody is allowed to log into the account, which prevents hackers from taking over, and the account doesn’t show up on “People You May Know” or birthday reminders.
With a copy of a death certificate, obituary, or some other type of proof of death, anyone can submit a notice to Facebook that the person has deceased, though this should be left for the immediate family to do. There have been situations where family members had the username and password information and wanted to remove certain posts or photos from an account, only to learn that the account had already been memorialized resulting in their being locked out.
If you own a Facebook account, you can designate a person to be the “legacy” contact. Once the account is memorialized, the legacy contact can manage several elements of your account, including who can see and post tributes, delete tribute posts, write a pinned post, request removal of your account, and a few other actions on your behalf. See What is a legacy contact and what can they do with my Facebook account? | Facebook Help Center for more information. Without a legacy contact, these actions cannot take place by anyone.
A legacy contact can be designated posthumously but will require legal proof of a person having that right, such as a court order.
The memorialization of an Instagram account is similar to Facebook. The account is locked, “Remembering” is placed next to the person’s name on their profile, and posts remain visible to the audience they were originally shared with. The biggest difference is that Instagram doesn’t have the legacy contact option. As a result, users should leave detailed instructions about their wishes in a will to have an account deleted or memorialized.
LinkedIn also will memorialize accounts with proper proof of death. Once memorialized, access is locked but their history of activity will remain. Posts and articles by the deceased can still be accessed, but engagement directly with the user’s profile is not available. Followers will no longer be able to give kudos, send messages, make connection requests, write recommendations, etc.
Most other social media platforms have similar policies, and we encourage you to review the guidelines on their websites. Keep in mind, however, that policies will likely change often as more social media users age and die and conflicts, disagreements, and lawsuits by family members over their loved one’s accounts increase in frequency. In addition, don’t be surprised if more laws are created regarding the management of social media assets, especially with more and more users using the various platforms to make money as influencers.
