Digital afterlife – how to deal with social media accounts when someone dies

Deciding what to do with a dead friend or relative’s online presence is complicated and time-consuming but there are shortcuts. There is no one-stop-shop or single method to memorialise or delete accounts. Some companies, including Google, are now deleting accounts after two years of inactivity but there is no consistency across platforms.

In this article, Dr Bjorn Nansen discusses how social media companies respond and the implications of their response.