Memorialized accounts on Facebook get ‘Tributes’ section

When an owner of a Facebook account dies, the social network often turns it into a “memorialized account,” a special type of profile which can only be moderated by the so called “legacy accounts,” had they been chosen beforehand by the account’s original owner.  

In some cases, other users were allowed to post on the account’s timeline, but now, TechCrunch reports that Facebook has launched Tributes, a separate “space on memorialized profiles where friends and family can share memories of a loved one.”

Facebook explains the new feature here. 

Again, legacy contacts will have certain moderating rights over Tributes, including the ability to decide who can see and post tributes, the ability to remove tags of the deceased person as well as the ability to delete posts. 

Facebook points out that legacy contacts still won’t be able to log into the memorialized account, read its messages, remove any of its friends or make new friend requests. 

While the thought of memorialized Facebook accounts may be off-putting to some, with billions of users, it’s Facebook’s reality. Formalizing user tributes to deceased users through this new feature is likely better than just ignoring the issue. 

Tributes aren’t available everywhere, though, so you might not see the option just yet. Facebook says it’s “working to bring it to everyone on Facebook.”