Coronavirus Deaths Are Making Instagram Speed Up Plans To Add Account Memorialization
Instagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has passed away. “We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one – among others – that we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19 to help support our community during a difficult time,” Liza Crenshaw, a spokesperson for Instagram told BuzzFeed News.
This new feature was first noticed by researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who has uncovered other new features in testing on social networks, like the mute button on Instagram. Details for the new feature, including when it will launch, are not yet set.
Currently, family members can ask that a dead person’s Instagram account be memorialized through a form on the Instagram site. This will preserve the account so it doesn’t get deleted or altered, and will prevent people from logging into it, even with the password. A memorialized account won’t show up on the Explore page, but friends can still send it DMs (though no one can read them).
This new feature will also add a “Remembering” banner to such accounts. This signals to other users that the account has been memorialized and the person has died.
How to best manage the accounts of people who have died is not a new problem for social networks.
Facebook has had an account memorialization function for years and in 2015 started allowing you to name someone as your account heir — someone you trust to manage your profile for you if you die. The company has since refined the feature, which in its early days allowed you to prank your friends by memorializing their accounts. Facebook now requires more documentation to determine that person is actually dead.
Last November, Twitter announced plans to delete the accounts of inactive users in Europe as a means of freeing up usernames. But concerns that the move might also purge the accounts of dead people, which might be devastating for their loved ones cause the company to rethink the idea. After a backlash, Twitter said it would it would not move forward with the plan until it had developed a tool to memorialize the Twitter accounts of those who have died. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Twitter told BuzzFeed News the company has no updates on those plans.
Instagram is speeding up plans for a new account memorialization feature, adding a “Remembering” banner under a username to signal that a person has passed away. “We’ve been working on these updates for some time, though this is one – among others – that we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19…
Recent Posts
- LG’s new super-bright OLED panel could give the next Meta Quest an edge over the Apple Vision Pro
- PPSSPP brings PSP emulation to the iPhone
- A new Bruce Springsteen documentary coming to Hulu and Disney Plus will take us on the road with the E Street Band
- Senate committee passes three bills to safeguard elections from AI, months before Election Day
- Firefox 126 is out – and it’ll make a huge difference to the quality of videos in the browser, for those with the right hardware
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011