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We all know that social media is part of our daily life. With over 2 billion active users, there’s no doubt that some of them are passing away, leaving behind their Facebook accounts. However, what happens to a Facebook account once someone dies?
Back in 2009, Facebook introduced memorial pages, adding the word “remembering” in front of the users’ name, turning their account into a digital place for friends and family to share memories, grieve, and remember their loved ones. These Facebook memorial pages are becoming more popular, as more friends and family look for ways to memorialize their loved ones.
A memorialized Facebook page is set to preserve all of the information that the deceased person shared through the social media platform. In many cases, this means preserving years of status updates, photos, and videos that friends and family can only see through their loved ones’ Facebook account.
Facebook memorial accounts have some key features that only these pages offer, for example:
In today’s modern social media era, as you and your family sit together to start pre-planning your funeral and burial arrangements, now you also have to consider Facebook arrangements. Pre-planning Facebook arrangements might seem unimportant, but in reality, it is an important step in the pre-arrangement process.
Choosing what will happen to your social media presence is another way to help your family prepare for the unexpected. Whether or not you want them to be able to memorialize you through your Facebook account is something that you must discuss with your family.
To help you plan for your passing, Facebook offers something called a legacy contact. They are someone you choose to look after your account once it’s memorialized. The legacy contact of your choice will be able to:
However, there are certain things a legacy contact can’t do:
At this time, you can only select a Facebook friend that is 18 years or older as your legacy contact. Ideally, you want this person to be a close friend or a family member, maybe your children or spouse. Make sure to talk to them about the role they’ll play as your Facebook legacy contact and what they’re able to do with your account.
You can add, change, or remove a legacy contact at any time. To set one, follow these steps:
After a loved one dies, setting up a Memorial Page is a touching way of preserving their memories. If you’re ready to memorialize a loved one’s Facebook account, then you can start the memorialization request process so their profile can be memorialized.
If you’re a legacy contact, you first have to request the Facebook profile to be memorialized. To do that, you need to send a memorialization request, which asks for the following information:
After the page is memorialized, you can go to their profile and click Manage. Here you’ll be able to add pinned posts, respond friend requests, change profile photos, and so on.
If as a legacy contact you want to delete and remove your loved ones’ profile, you also have to submit this form to Facebook can proceed to delete the account.
If you are not a legacy contact and you know your loved one didn’t choose one, you can still request their Facebook page to be deleted. In this case, Facebook requires information from an immediate family member or executor of the account holder. To do so, you can submit:
Also, you will also be required to provide proof that your loved one has passed away, including an obituary or a memorial card.
Please note that the information you provide must match the one in your loved one’s account to proceed. Also, make sure to cover up any personal information, such as Social Security number. Once you’ve gathered all the information, you can go ahead and submit a request to delete a loved ones’ account.
In today’s social media driven world we have to think about every detail surrounding a loved one’s passing. As you look at your pre-planning arrangements today, don’t forget to think about your Facebook account and other social media profiles.
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