What happens to your Facebook account when you die?
Social media giant to use AI to stop people getting notifications about deceased friends and relatives

Facebook is developing a new artificial intelligence programme to prevent its users from receiving potentially upsetting notifications about dead relatives and friends.
Since 2009, Facebook has given users the ability to “memorialise” profiles - a status that adds “Remembering” to the person’s name and allows friends to post messages, reports the BBC. Once a page has been memorialised, it no longer appears within notifications as if that person were still alive.
But some grieving users have been getting nudges to interact with deceased loved ones who have not yet been memorialised.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The social media giant says its new and improved AI system should help prevent such painful situations, by better managing the way that the accounts of deceased users appear on the social network.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said: “If an account hasn’t yet been memorialised, we use AI to help keep it from showing up in places that might cause distress, like recommending that person be invited to events or sending a birthday reminder to their friends. We’re working to get better and faster at this.”
In recent years, a number of Facebook users have accused the social media service of being “cruel” after its algorithms “brought up dead friends and relatives in places where people didn’t expect”, says The Daily Telegraph.
The issue came to a head in 2014, when the company’s “year in review” feature - which automatically creates a video showing a user’s top posts and pictures over the past 12 months - included “tragic and distressing events” for some people, the newspaper says.
With the new AI programme, users should no longer get updates about dead contacts, be reminded of their birthday, or get suggestions to invite them to an event, Metro reports.
What happens to your account when you die?
Friends and relatives of a deceased Facebook user have a few different choices for how that person’s account is handled.
One option is to memorialise the account, whereby users can view a deceased person’s profile by selecting the “tributes” tab. The move converts the account into a memorial page and keeps their timeline intact.
Alternatively, if the user elected a friend or relative as a “legacy” contact before they passed away, the nominee can take over the running of the account following their death.
Under new measures also being introduced by Facebook, legacy contacts can now moderate “posts shared to the new tributes section by changing tagging settings, removing tags and editing who can post and see posts”, Sandberg said in a blogpost.
People aged under 18 cannot designate legacy contacts, but parents or guardians of deceased children can request access to their account by contacting Facebook directly.
However, Wired argues that this legacy contact system still has flaws. According to the tech news site, you can only have one legacy contact for an account - so “if both the person and their designated legacy contact die, say in a car crash, there’s no back-up person”.
When asked by Wired about the potential complications that could cause, Sandberg replied: “Oh my God, that’s so interesting, and I wonder if we should have a second [contact].”
“I had not heard that or it had not occurred to me before, but... we should explore that and we will,” she added.
Can your account be deleted after you die?
Yes. The elected legacy contact is able to delete the decease person’s account, including their posts and pictures.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Fake AI job seekers are flooding U.S. companies
In the Spotlight It's getting harder for hiring managers to screen out bogus AI-generated applicants
By Theara Coleman, The Week US
-
Meta on trial: What will become of Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire?
Today's Big Question Despite the CEO's attempt to ingratiate himself with Trump, Meta is on trial, accused by the U.S. government of breaking antitrust law
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
How might AI chatbots replace mental health therapists?
Today's Big Question Clients form 'strong relationships' with tech
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
What are AI hallucinations?
The Explainer Artificial intelligence is known for making things up – and that can cause real damage
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK
-
The backlash against ChatGPT's Studio Ghibli filter
The Explainer The studio's charming style has become part of a nebulous social media trend
By Theara Coleman, The Week US
-
Not there yet: The frustrations of the pocket AI
Feature Apple rushes to roll out its ‘Apple Intelligence’ features but fails to deliver on promises
By The Week US
-
What does an ex-executive's new memoir reveal about Meta's free speech pivot?
Today's Big Question 'Careless People' says Facebook was ready to do China censorship
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
OpenAI's new model is 'really good' at creative writing
Under the Radar CEO Sam Altman says he is impressed. But is this merely an attempt to sell more subscriptions?
By Theara Coleman, The Week US