How Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, others handle accounts of users when they die

Have you been seriously wondering how social media platforms handle accounts of users when they die?

Over the years, online platforms built for the living increasingly have to confront the challenge of what to do when one of their users dies, leaving an account behind.

However, reports say each platform is different in handling the situation, but all have procedures in place should a user die as explained below.

(1.) Facebook will “memorialize” a deceased user’s account — turning it essentially into a remembrance page — at the request of family members or friends. (Family members can also request to delete the account entirely.)

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(2.) Instagram, which Facebook owns, will also lock in the contents of someone’s account when they die.

(3.) Twitter will deactivate a deceased user’s account in collaboration with a “person authorized to act on behalf of the estate, or with a verified immediate family member.”

(4.) Google will work to secure a user’s account after they die. “We can work with immediate family members and representatives to close the account of a deceased person where appropriate,” the company says. “In certain circumstances we may provide content from a deceased users account.”

Several platforms also encourage users to plan ahead for their own death, often by designating an individual to handle their account.

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