Social Media: Article: Big Tech is Becoming the Executor of the Dead

[Kim Locke]

Who is going to access your social media accounts after your death?
Is it going to be easy for them?

https://www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-is-becoming-the-executor-of-the-dead/

[Debra Turnbull]

@Kim-Locke

The horror here is that long-distance friends and family that are used to interacting with you on Facebook, will naturally assume that you are "fine"... when in fact you are deceased. They will never know that you have passed on.

The deceptive behaviour of these companies is criminal; if not altogether anti-social.

[Kim Locke]

@Debra-Turnbull This is why we need to be more aggressive with lobbying for laws that will give people the authority over their own social media accounts, or be able to name someone else to look after them after they are deceased. I think it's like an executor of a will, maybe.

[Jenna Kedy 0]

@Kim-Locke It honestly gives me Black Mirror vibes! AI pretending to BE someone after they dies feels really unsettling to me like imagine scrolling Facebook and seeing a dead loved one “like” a post because an algorithm predicted they would’ve done that. I also think people don’t realize how much of their entire personality exists online now through photos.
Your digital footprint is basically a second version of you and the wildest part is most of us assume our family automatically gets access to our accounts after death when really giant tech companies control almost everything. Kinda makes you realize we need “digital wills” now, not just regular ones!!

[Jenna Kedy 0]

@Debra-Turnbull That part is honestly heartbreaking. People don’t always realize social media isn’t “real life updates” anymore as it’s just whatever the algorithm continues to surface. I’ve seen this with my own grandmother’s Facebook as long-distance friends wish her happy birthday who genuinely don’t know or forgot she had passed. In older generations especially, Facebook is how many people keep up with distant family now and that’s what makes this whole conversation so emotional is that someone can die, but their digital presence can keep looking “alive.” No obituary reaches everyone. Sometimes people only find out months or years later through a comment section. That’s why memorialization features can matter when handled respectfully as they help signal reality and prevent that painful confusion but AI continuing to actively post as someone after death crosses a very different line for a lot of people emotionally and ethically.

[Jenna Kedy 0]

@Kim-Locke I agree! We already have laws around physical estates but most people’s lives now also exist digitally, and the law has not kept up with that reality at all. There absolutely should be stronger protections allowing people to choose a “digital executor”Right now, most people assume their family automatically has rights to their online life after death, but in reality tech companies often have more control than grieving loved ones do. That’s a huge problem. Digital legacy planning honestly needs to become as normalized as writing a will.