As our digital footprints grow, a critical question emerges: what happens to our online presence when we're gone? With social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram weaving themselves into the fabric of our lives, it's essential to understand how they handle the digital legacy of deceased users. Let's dive into the procedures that govern what happens to social media accounts after death of a user and explore the options available to individuals and their loved ones.
Facebook prioritizes the management of a deceased person's account and offers two primary options to users: memorializing the account or deleting it. Memorialization is the most commonly chosen path. When a Facebook account is memorialized, it becomes a digital memorial for friends and family to visit, with certain features disabled to respect privacy.
According to statistics, 1.5 billion people log into Facebook daily. As more people log in, Facebook has worked to perfect its policy of handling posthumous accounts. In a memorialized state, only friends can view the profile, though certain parts of the account, including posting or renaming the account, are locked off.
Family members can request the memorialization of a person's account or loved ones who provide evidence of the individual's death. Facebook provides the memorialization process to maintain an account and permit the memory of the deceased to remain accessible while also protecting their private information.
Alternatively, a person may choose a legacy contact before a person dies. A legacy contact may control portions of the account, such as authoring a last post or regulating friend requests.
Instagram follows the same policy as Facebook. A deceased person's Instagram account can either be memorialized or deleted permanently. The memorialized account will look like a tribute page where others can continue to share memories and stories. Only followers can interact with the content, and notifications are disabled for the account owner.
Memorialization will keep photos and videos alive among loved ones following the person. In some instances, the memorialization request may be made by immediate family members or anyone who can provide the necessary proof of death, including a death certificate.
With over 2 billion users worldwide, Instagram prompts users to add legacy contacts. A family member can still memorialize the account if no legacy contact is present.
If a person chooses to delete the account, a family member with valid identification and proof must initiate the deletion process.
Digital legacy management has become a new part of today's virtual world. Some would leave their social networking presence to exist as a tribute, while others would like it deleted. In the end, it is an individual's prerogative to decide through prior settings and other family members what should be done with their desires after death.
It's always wise to have a plan for managing your digital legacy. Many people take proactive steps to set their privacy settings and designate a trusted individual as their legacy contact. This can help ensure that their accounts are preserved or closed according to their wishes.
Whether on Facebook or Instagram, your chosen legacy contact will play a key role in how your online presence is managed after your passing.