Facebook Will: What Will Happen To My Facebook Account If I Pass Away?

Well, you decide what happens.

Over the weekends, I strangely found a Facebook feature that will be helpful to all of us. At least those of us, who are very active and have enough resources on that platform. By resources, I mean Videos, Posts, Images, Followers, Likes, Comments, etc.

I never knew such a feature exists that can help you decide what happens to your content when you are no more.

It's something I've long been waiting for.

Basically, It is an answer to the question

1. “What will happen to my Facebook account if I pass away?” OR
2. "What should happen to my Facebook account when I pass away"

Has that thought ever occurred to you?

If YES then you’ve got a solution, IF NO then it's worth given it a thought.

That feature is what Facebook calls "Memorialization". In short, you are creating a Digital Will for your Facebook Account.

To do that, there are two options involved.

1. Allow someone to manage your account when you pass away.
2. Allow Facebook to permanently delete everything you’ve ever put on their platform.

But first of all, why would want to decide what happens to your account when you pass away?

To me the answer is in many folds:

1. Business Wise: You will understand this if you’ve invested enough in promoting your business on Facebook. You definitely won’t like the 1000s of followers you’ve got to disappear. You will want whoever takes over your business to have access to all promotions you've done on Facebook.
2. Generation unborn: The average man like me, and maybe you: We’ve never had good enough platform to immortalize our thoughts. Facebook provides us with that. What that means is, your children, or grandchildren won’t have to go ask old people how their father/GrantMa lived the life. They just have to go through your post. It’s good you make that available to them.
3. You will want someone to update your friends about your funeral services. In fact, Facebook recently released a feature that will allow your friends to send tributes. It's a feature specifically for tributes.

Now, let’s look at OPTION 1:

Allow someone to manage your account when you pass away.

According to Facebook terms and terminologies, the person who will manage your account when you are no more is called Legal Contact.

Below is what Facebook says about a legal contact.

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it's memorialized. If you add a legacy contact, that person will be able to make decisions about your account once it is memorialized.

Your legacy contact can:

1. Write a pinned post for your profile (example: to share a final message on your behalf or provide information about a memorial service).
2. View posts, even if you had set your privacy to Only Me.
3. Decide who can see and who can post tributes, if the memorialized account has an area for tributes.
4. Delete tribute posts.
5. Change who can see posts that you're tagged in.
6. Remove tags of you that someone else has posted.
7. Respond to new friend requests (example: old friends or family members who weren't yet on Facebook).
8. Update your profile picture and cover photo.
9. Request the removal of your account.
10. Turn off the requirement to review posts and tags before they appear in the tributes section, if you had timeline review turned on.
11. Download a copy of what you've shared on Facebook, if you have this feature turned on.

We may add more capabilities for legacy contacts in the future.

Your legacy contact can't:

1. Log into your account.
2. Read your messages.
3. Remove any of your friends or make new friend requests.

Now that we know who a Legal Contact is, let’s see how to make someone a legal Contact.

Once again: Facebook provide nice steps as listed below.

You can add, change or remove your legacy contact in your account's General Settings at any time.

To add a legacy contact:

1. Click in the top right of Facebook and click Settings.
2. Click Memorialization Settings.
3. Type in a friend's name and click Add.
4. To let your friend know they're now your legacy contact, click Send.
5. To change or remove a legacy contact, follow steps 1–2 above, then click Remove. From there, you can add a new legacy contact if you'd like.

If your account is memorialized, your legacy contact will be notified.

Note:

1. You must be 18 or older to select a legacy contact.
2. The legal contact can’t do anything, until you pass away, and a legal prove is submitted to Facebook (via upload). Facebook will then verify the documents and if it’s true, then the Legal Contact will have the permission to manage your account.

Below is a screen shot, explaining the steps.

First at the Upper Right of your Profile, you will see a small arrow pointing downward. Click on the Arrow

Step 2: Click on Settings:

Step 3: Click on Memorialization Settings [or Click on the EDIT at the right side]

You are almost there, don't give up!

Step 4: Next you will see a space where you can type a friend's [or family member's] name. You can only add someone with facebook account.

Once you start typing, the name will appear. Then you click on it.

After, click on [ADD], just at the right side of where you typed.

Step 5: Facebook will send Message to the person. You can edit this message before sending

You will see below when everyting goes on fine.

Step 6: You can then start the discursion with the person.

I also got a mail from Facebook. Just in case it was a mistake. Ignore the message, since it isn't a mistake.

WELL DONE. THAT IS ALL. You've setup someone who will make your account when you pass away. But one more thing. Will you want the person to be able to DOWNLOAD everything in your account (Your post, images, comments, files, etc). If YES, then do this further settings. That is the *Data Archive Permission*

OPTION 2:

Allow Facebook to permanently delete everything you’ve ever put on their platform.

Don't look further, that option is also just down there.

Next, Facebook will ask you if you really mean it.

Once again, facebook will update you via Email, after you click [Delete After Death].

NOTE: Either OPTION 1 or OPTION 2, you can easily revoke it by following the instructions in the Email.

You can always go back to the Memorialization Settings to update it too.

In case you need a video demonstration then In the attached video, I've gone through step by step, with no step skipped, on HOW TO do everything I’ve said above.

Kindly watch and set yours accordingly and please do well to share, so everyone on Facebook will set theirs too.

Better late than never!