What Happens to Your Social Media Accounts at Your Death?
Statista reports that more than 295 million people in the United States rely on social media. If you faithfully communicate via social media networks, consider what could happen to digital assets when you die. Have you created, uploaded, and shared content? This blog post addresses how to protect your digital assets.
What happens to your Facebook account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
Facebook’s Help Center asserts that they will memorialize the account of someone who dies if a loved one informs them of the death. In such a case, Facebook staff will memorialize the account without changing the legacy contact. However, the content previously shared remains intact so family and friends can continue to see everything the deceased person previously shared.
What You Can Do
If you want someone to continue to manage your account after you die, you need to designate a legacy contact. Your designee “can accept friend requests on behalf of a memorialized account, pin a tribute post to the profile and change the profile picture and cover photo.”
Another option is to permanently delete the account when you die. As a result, Facebook will permanently delete everything associated with the account (including messages, photos, comments, etc.). Thus, this does not preserve digital assets.
Facebook Pages
If you have a Facebook page for your social media endeavor, Facebook states that “pages with a sole admin whose account was memorialized will be removed from Facebook if we receive a valid memorialization request.” Therefore, if you want your page to continue, you should plan ahead.
What happens to your Instagram account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
If, upon your passing, Instagram receives a valid request, they will memorialize your account. Posts you shared will stay on your account and will still be visible to those you originally shared the content with.
As an alternative, an immediate family member can request that your account be removed from Instagram. To remove an account, Instagram requires proof that the requesting person is an immediate family member.
Instagram has no way for you to designate someone to manage your account at your death.
What happens to your Pinterest account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
After you pass away, a family member can contact Pinterest via their website to inform them of your passing. Upon receiving notice of your death, Pinterest will deactivate your account, and it will no longer be accessible by anyone.
Pinterest currently offers no way to designate someone to manage the account after the account holder dies. Thus, it is impossible to preserve these digital assets.
What happens to your Snapchat account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
A family member can contact Snapchat, provide them with a copy of your death certificate, and have the account deleted.
Snapchat does not allow you to designate someone to continue the account after you have passed.
What happens to your Twitter account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
The person authorized to act on behalf of your estate or a verified immediate family member can contact Twitter and request that your account be deactivated. Twitter will ask for supporting documentation to avoid false or unauthorized reports.
On the other hand, if the account is inactive for six months or longer (i.e., no one has logged in during that period), Twitter may permanently remove the account “due to prolonged inactivity.”
What happens to your YouTube account after you die?
If You Do Nothing
Because of YouTube’s affiliation with Google, an immediate family member or representative of your estate can contact Google to close the account and submit a request for funds from your account.
What You Can Do
You can control access to your YouTube account using Google’s Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to designate a person to be contacted if your account has been inactive for a specified period of time. If you have decided to grant the designee access to any of your accounts, they will also be informed of the data you have chosen to share with them. The message will also include a link they can use to download the information.
Next Steps
Because the process for each account is different, it is important that your loved ones know what social media accounts you have and what your wishes are for their future after you have passed. By properly laying out your wishes in your estate plan, you can provide guidance to your loved ones and reassurance that your legacy will live on. Contact us today to discuss next steps for protecting you, your accounts, and your loved ones.
About Skvarna Law in Glendora & Upland, California
Skvarna Law Firm operates offices in Glendora and Upland, California. Also, we provide legal services. We cover San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties. This includes several cities. Upland, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Colton, Rialto, Chino, Chino Hills, Glendora, Claremont, Pomona, La Verne, Montclair, San Dimas, Azusa, Covina, West Covina, Diamond Bar, Walnut, La Puente, Corona, Norco & Mira Loma.
