What happens to your social media accounts after death?
Annoyingly what happens to social media accounts after someone dies varies by social media platform - there’s no hard and fast rule. This can make things a bit complicated.
Similar to our easy-to-use online will, we’re building a tool to help take the headache out of this process that will make this as easy as 1, 2, 3 - coming soon.
But in the meantime, you might want to create a plan for your accounts or decide what happens to a friend or family member's social media accounts after they’ve died. We’ve laid out your options for your social media accounts, platform by platform to make it super simple.
What happens to your facebook account when someone dies?
There are three possible things that can happen to a Facebook Account when someone dies:
- The profile can be memorialised
- The page can be deleted
- The nominated legacy contact can manage the profile *This has to be done by the owner of the account before they die.
What is a Facebook memorial page?
A Facebook memorial page is a space for people to share memories and messages after someone has died. There are a few things that make Facebook memorial pages unique:
- Next to the person's name on their profile it will say ‘Remembering’.
- Depending on the privacy and security settings on the account, friends and family can share memories on the Facebook memorial page timeline.
- The content that the person shared, such as any photos or posts will stay on the page. This will be visible to whoever the content was originally shared with.
- Facebook memorial pages won’t appear in public spaces, for example, they won’t feature in suggested people you may know or in birthday alerts.
- No one can log in to the Facebook memorial account.
- Unless they had chosen a legacy contact no one will be able to edit or remove the account or any content on the account.
How do you memorialise a Facebook account
Memorialising a Facebook account can be done by filling out this request form.
In order to do this you will need documents that provide proof of death.
How do you delete someone's Facebook account after they’ve died?
- Visit the help center: https://www.facebook.com/help
- Next, type in the search box "deceased user delete,"
- Then choose “remove account”.
To do this you will require the following:
- A copy of ID for the person requesting the account deletion.
- Death certificate or obituary.
- Proof of relationship with the deceased.
What is a legacy contact on Facebook
A legacy contact on Facebook who will look after your account if you died and your Facebook account was memorialised.
What can a legacy contact do on a memorialised Facebook page:
Legacy contacts are able to:
- Accept friend requests on behalf of a memorialised account.
- Pin tributes post on the profile.
- Change the profile picture and cover photo.
- They can also decide who can post and who can view tributes.
- Amend who sees posts that the person is tagged in.
- Remove tags on photos that someone else has posted.
- Request that the account is removed.
- Remove requirement restrictions so that you don’t need to review posts or tags before they appear on the tribute section of the memorial page.
- Download a copy of what the person has shared on Facebook - this can only be done if the person has turned this feature on.
Legacy contacts are not able to:
- Log in to the account.
- Read private messages.
- Unfriend existing friends or make new friend requests.
How do you nominate a legacy contact on your Facebook account?
You can easily nominate, edit or remove a legacy contact on your Facebook account.
To nominate a legacy contact you just need to:
- Click the drop down arrow in the top right of Facebook.
- Select Settings and Privacy, then click Settings.
- Click Memorialisation settings.
- Type in the friend's name in Choose A Friend and click Add.
- Click Send, this will let them know they’re now your legacy contact.
To edit or remove your legacy contact you just need to:
- Click the drop down arrow in the top right of Facebook.
- Select Settings and Privacy, then click Settings.
- Click Memorialisation settings.
- Click Remove.
- You can then type in another Facebook friend's name and click add if you want to choose a new legacy contact.
- Click Send, this will let them know they’re now your legacy contact.
What happens to Instagram accounts when someone dies?
There are two things that can happen to an Instagram Account when someone dies:
- The profile is memorialised
- The profile is deleted
What does memorialising an Instagram account do?
Once the account is memorialised it can’t be changed in any way. No one can log in, add new posts or comments. The page would also be hidden from the explore section and other public spaces.
How can you memorialise an Instagram account:
You will need documents that offer proof of death to hand. Then you need to enter the person's details here.
How to delete someone's Instagram account after they’ve died
- Visit this link
- Submit a request to delete the account
- Prepare and fill-in the required
To do this you will require the following:
- Proof of death.
- Proof of relationship with the person who’s died.
What happens to a Twitter account when someone dies?
Frustratingly Twitter offers no choice as to what happens to a Twitter account when someone dies. They only offer the option to delete the Twitter account.
How to delete a Twitter account after someone has died
Twitter will deactivate the account when they are contacted by a family member or an executor of the estate. You can start the process here. To do this you will need the following:
- Information about the deceased
- Copy of the death certificate
- Copy of ID for the person requesting account deletion
Summary
As you can see these social media platforms haven’t made this easy for us. Let’s be honest. It’s a bit of a mess. That’s why we think we can do better and create a tool that allows you to lay out a clear plan for your social media accounts.
Sign up to Bow to be the first to hear about it when it is good to go. Until then we hope this is the next best thing.
