In our digital age, we spend large portions of our lives on social media platforms, posting photos, sharing thoughts, connecting with friends, and building an online presence.

But what happens to all that when you die? Your social media accounts become part of your digital legacy, a collection of your online presence and digital assets.

Most major platforms now recognise this reality and offer options for what happens when an account holder dies, but there is no universal approach.

Each service has its own rules and requirements, meaning that unless you plan, the destiny of your accounts may be beyond your control.

Facebook / Instagram (Meta)

On Facebook, you can nominate a legacy contact who will take over parts of your account, for example, pin a tribute post, change profile/cover photo, once you’re deceased.

The account may be memorialised, in which case it remains visible to friends, but is marked as “Remembering” and won’t appear in friend suggestions or receive birthday alerts.

Alternatively, you, or your authorised family, can request that the account be permanently deleted.

For Instagram (owned by Meta) the policy is very similar; you can request memorialisation or deletion with proof of death.

The account is then frozen, meaning no new posts, if memorialised.

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X (formerly Twitter)

Here, the account cannot be memorialised in the same way as Facebook.

Instead, family/legal representatives can request deactivation.

They will need to provide proof of death, like a death certificate, and proof of relationship/authority.

The user’s content which is mainly tweets, may remain unless removed per policy.

Snapchat, TikTok & LinkedIn

Snapchat’s policy is more limited; the account of someone who has died may be deleted upon submission of a death certificate.

The platforms don’t offer a full memorialisation process or allow third-party account management.

TikTok currently lacks formal memorialisation options in many cases.

If you have access to the login credentials, you can delete the account; otherwise options are limited.

LinkedIn allows you, or a legal representative, to report the person deceased and request closure or convert to a memorial/hidden profile.

You need proof of death and, in many cases proof of authority.

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What You Should Do

Given this patchwork of policies, it’s wise to prepare ahead.

Document your wishes, which accounts you want closed, which left as a memorial, and who is trusted to act on your behalf.

Use available settings, legacy contacts, inactive account managers, and ensure your family/executor knows what to do.

In doing so, you spare them an additional burden at an already difficult time, and help ensure your digital legacy is handled in keeping with your preferences.

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Representational Image of People Using Social Media Created with Meta AI Image Generator. Photo: RMN