Facebook ‘memorialises’ profiles
BBC News (October 27, 2009)

It was bound to happen sooner or later. You know, someone dies and then Facebook goes ahead and suggests that you add him or her as a friend. Yikes. It’s one of the many technology dilemmas when it comes to death and dying in the interweb age.

The BBC explains:

Facebook has announced that it will be giving friends and family the option to “memorialise” the profiles of members who have died.

It follows some cases of members receiving updates about dead friends.

If a user is reported as deceased, Facebook will remove sensitive information such as status updates and contacts. When reporting a death, users must offer “proof” by submitting either an obituary or news article.

I haven’t read through the full Facebook policy, but at some point a new policy will have to be developed: how long does the memorial page remain active? And/or can some next of kin have the page removed even though other members of the family disagree? These cases will all come up.

Such is human death in late modernity.