Facebook addresses a difficult question of what happens to someones social page after they have passed on.
As uncomfortable as it may be, but the topic has to be discussed and plans has to be in place for the after life although tough to gauge as what action to take with the account of someone who has died, for instance what should be done with an account of a deceased young person when one of their parents wants to delete the account but the other wants to preserve it as a memorial for friends and family? How to know what the person would have wanted?
The law does not provide any respite in this situation, in many countries, the legal framework for transferring assets to surviving family members does not account for digital assets like social media or email accounts. In most cases Facebook will leave the account as it is, a standard process is to add “Remembering” above the name on the person’s profile, to make clear that the account is now a memorial site, and to stop any new attempts to log into the account.
If they have left a preferred option to delete the profile after they die or the next of kin were informed that the deceased one would have preferred that it be deleted, than the account would be removed. There are those who also would want a friend or family member to be able to manage their profile as a memorial site after their death. There a legacy contact option on the account who can manage certain features on the account if they pass away such as changing the profile picture, accepting friend requests or adding a pinned post to the top of the profile.
As for private messages conversed on a Facebook post, the social site will not turn over any private messages to family members as the law sides these digital services even if a family member gives consent disclose the contents of a person’s communications. This are not rules are guides that can’t be changed, there are still learning curves and matters of emotion are complicated, Facebook is aware of this and is open to suggestions and feedback’s.
