What will happen to my Facebook account if I pass away?
You can tell Facebook whether you’d like to have your account memorialized or permanently deleted from Facebook when you pass away. You can choose to either appoint someone called a legacy contact to look after your memorialised account or have your account permanently deleted from Facebook.
If you don’t choose to have your account permanently deleted, it will be memorialised just as soon as Facebook become aware of your passing.
Memorialised accounts
Some people don’t want all trace of themselves instantly removed from the Internet. Memorialised accounts give friends and family the opportunity to share their memories of you. You should be aware that such accounts have the following characteristics:
- The word Rememberingwill be shown next to your name in your profile.
- Depending on your privacy settings , friends can share memories on the memorialised timeline.
- Any content you shared suchas photos or posts, will remain on Facebook
- Memorialised 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 memorialised account.
- Memorialised 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 we receive a valid memorialisation request.
Legacy contacts
A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it’s memorialised. We strongly suggest setting a legacy contact so your account can be managed once it’s memorialised.
A legacy contact can accept friend requests on behalf of a memorialised account, pin a tribute post to the profile and change the profile picture and cover photo. If the memorialised account has an area for tributes, a legacy contact will be able to decide who can see and who can post tributes.
Deleting your account when you pass away
You can choose to have your account permanently deleted should you pass away. To do this:
- From the top right of Facebook, click on the far right & select Settings.
- Click Memorialisation Settings.
- Scroll down, click Request account deletion and click Delete After Death.
For friends and family
If you’d like to create another place for people on Facebook to share memories of your loved one, we suggest creating a group.
Roger Bourdon