What happens to your Facebook account when you die?

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What Happens to Your Facebook Profile When You Die?

9th July 2020MMPurse

I wrote this post nearly a year ago, and as it's about to be the anniversary of my friend's death which prompted me to write it in the first place, it seems a timely reminder to share it again. It's not a nice topic, but it's so much worse if you don't address this now. I believe it’s better to prepare for the worst, when you are feeling at your best.

The thing is, ‘nothing happens’ to your facebook profile when you die, unless you prepare for that certainty or someone else will be left to take on this rather distressing task.

Let’s discuss the reality of what ‘nothing happens’ really looks like:

Your profile will continue on the world of Facebook as if you are still a living, breathing person just with no activity from your side.
It doesn’t stop others posting to your profile though, which could be incredibly distressing for your friends and family. There are instances of some vile internet trolls posting awful things on the profiles of some deceased Facebook users. I don’t know why anyone would, but it happens, and it is very upsetting for your friends and family.
You know those nice ‘friend anniversary’ posts? Your friends and family are going to be subject to those popping up on their timelines too, which is not always welcome if someone is still very much in the grip of grief.
Additionally, your facebook profile is potentially open to being hacked and used for nefarious purposes. Imagine how distressing it would be for your loved ones to receive spammy messages and posts ‘from the grave’.

All in all, leaving your Facebook account running in the event of your death is not an optimal scenario and is something you should prepare for now in order to save your loved ones from having to handle this pain on top of their inevitable loss. Basically, think of it as a social media will.

Who Lets Facebook Know?

In the event of your death, anyone can inform Facebook of your passing using this form here. They will need to provide a death certificate (so it would most likely be a family member). Otherwise your account will continue and is open to abuse or causing distress that I mentioned above. Once Facebook is informed they will then act upon your wishes to either delete or memorialise your account and then notify your legacy contact. We’ll get into these details next.

Delete or Memorialize Your Account?

You need to decide what happens to your profile after you die. This is a tricky one. Your options are currently that your account will be deleted or memorialized.

Think carefully about ticking the delete option - remember your family may want to take some time to download your photos (if you have allowed this) and/or read posts from friends. It can be a very important part of grieving so please consider what you feel might be best for your loved ones.

Memorialization offers them the options to keep the page as a memorial for you, but will also allow them to request its deletion/removal eventually.

There is no right or wrong answer to these options, but perhaps it’s something you can discuss with your nominated legacy contact? Keep in mind that if you, the account holder, request to have your account permanently deleted, Facebook will remove your account once they are made aware you have passed away. All of your info, photos and posts will be permanently removed from Facebook and no one will be able to see your profile again.

To memorialize your account after you die, you need to nominate a legacy contact. The next section deals with this in detail.

This is where you can access these settings:

1
From the top right of Facebook, click the down arrow and select Settings.
2
Click Manage Account.
3
Go to "Memorialisation settings" - see first screen shot below.
4
Nominate a legacy contact and/or choose to have your account deleted in the case of your death - see second screen shot below.

Scroll down, click Request account deletion and click Delete After Death.

Memorialization & Nominating a Legacy Contact

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it's memorialized after your death.

Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.

Memorialized accounts have the following key features:

The word Remembering will be shown next to the person's name on their profile.
Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized timeline.
Content the person shared (example: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible on Facebook to the audience it was shared with.
Memorialized profiles don't appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
No one can log into a memorialized account.
Memorialized accounts that don't have a legacy contact can't be changed.
Pages with a sole admin whose account was memorialized will be removed from Facebook if they receive a valid memorialization request.

Your legacy contact can:

Write a pinned post for your profile (example: to share a final message on your behalf or provide information about a memorial service).
View posts, even if you had set your privacy to Only Me.
Decide who can see and who can post tributes, if the memorialized account has an area for tributes.
Delete tribute posts.
Change who can see posts that you're tagged in.
Remove tags of you that someone else has posted.
Respond to new friend requests (example: old friends or family members who weren't yet on Facebook).
Update your profile picture and cover photo.
Request the removal of your account.
Turn off the requirement to review posts and tags before they appear in the tributes section, if you had timeline review turned on.
Download a copy of what you've shared on Facebook, if you have this feature turned on.

Your legacy contact can't:

Log into your account.
Read your messages.
Remove any of your friends or make new friend requests.

To add your legacy contact:

Click the down arrow in the top right of Facebook and click Settings.
Click Manage Account.
Type in a friend's name and click Add.
To let your friend know they're now your legacy contact, click Send.

You can add, change or remove your legacy contact in your account's General Settings at any time.

To change or remove a legacy contact, follow steps 1–3 above, then click Remove. From there, you can add a new legacy contact if you'd like.

If your account is memorialized, your legacy contact will be notified (in the event they did not notify Facebook of your death).

Remember, anyone who has your death certificate can ask Facebook to memorialise your account, but if you as the account holder haven’t selected a legacy contact, the account won't be actively cared for by anyone after memorialization has been requested. So it’s really important to nominate your legacy contact.

Let’s spare our loved ones from this pain by preparing for this eventuality right now (yes, today!) - please open another browser window and follow the steps above.

Verified Family Members

One additional step that is not essential but could be really helpful in the event of your death, is to have your family members added to your profile. This simply means you have verified them (they have to approve this request) as family and therefore it will be easier for them to communicate with Facebook about your profile after your death.

To add a family member to your About page:

Go to your profile and click About.
Click Family and Relationships (see screen shot below), then click 'Add a family member.'
Enter the name of your family member and select your relationship.
Select an audience for your post and click Save Changes.

When Someone Has Already Died

What if you are on the other side of the fence right now? Perhaps you have lost someone close to you and are left wondering what to do with their Facebook profile? It’s unlikely that they had already decided what would happen to their Facebook account in the event of their death - these options are quite new and still relatively unknown.

To remove your loved one's account from Facebook, you will need you to provide documentation to confirm you're an immediate family member or executor of the account holder. The fastest way for Facebook to process your request is for you to provide a scan or photo of your loved one's death certificate, which normally only family members will hold.

Once you have the required documentation, you need to send a request to Facebook to either memorialize or remove the account. Here is the link to do that: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/228813257197480

I appreciate this wasn’t the most cheery subject to lead you into the weekend but please take a moment to take care of this, because it can spare your friends and family a world of misery in the case of your untimely death.