Eva's Service Bureau has investigated how to remove or adjust the survivor's social media account(s) of the deceased. Below is an explanation of each social media website.
When a Facebook user is deceased, there are three possibilities with the Facebook profile:
- Remove.
- Memorial status.
- Stay activated.
Do you want to delete or modify the account of the deceased person? Then you should always make a request on Facebook. Facebook never gives login details or passwords to relatives to modify or delete the account.
Delete Facebook account of deceased
When a Facebook user is deceased, the relative of the deceased can choose to delete the account. This request must be submitted to Facebook. The account will be completely removed. All information, photos, status updates and friendships are deleted and therefore can’t be viewed by anyone anymore..
This request can only be submitted by close relatives. On this page you will find the form with which you can send a request to delete an account. An official document should also be sent, which suggests that you are actually an immediate family member
To delete or adjust a Facebook account from a deceased friend or relative you need send the following information through the appropriate form.
- Your own name.
- Name of deceased person.
- Email deceased person which it is registered on Facebook.
- Web address of the Facebook profile. For example; facebook.com/firstnamelastname62.
- Your relationship with the deceased.
- Direct family (spouse, parent, brother / sister or child).
- Extended family (grandparents, uncle, aunt, cousin).
- No family (friend, colleague, classmate).
- Desired solution.
- Memorial & memorial status.
- Remove Facebook profile.
- I have a special request.
- I have a question.
- Year of death.
- Attachments.
- Death Certificate.
- Birth certificate.
- License.
- Any other comments.
The account of a deceased Twitter user can be deactivated by a family member or other authorized person. For this you must send the following information to Twitter:
- The user name of the deceased Twitterer (e.g. @user or twitter.com/user).
- Copy of the death certificate
- Copy of the identity document (e.g. passport, driving license, etc.).
- A signed statement containing your name, email address, contact information, relationship with the deceased and the desired action (for example, delete account).
- A brief description to show that the account actually belonged to the deceased person. This is important when the name on the death certificate doesn’t match the name on the account..
- A reference to an online article or copy of a newspaper article can be optionally added.
You can send information to the above address or fax number of US Twitter:
Twitter, Inc.
c/o: Trust & Safety
1355 Market St., Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94103
Fax : 1-415-865-5405
Based on the information supplied Twitter deactivates the account and ensures that placed tweets are removed in the past. So these public posts aren’t visible to others.
If needed, Twitter will request more data to verify that the user in question is actually deceased. Then the account is actually deleted. Twitter will not give to a third person, family members or other relatives access to login to an account of a deceased person.
To delete a LinkedIn account of a deceased person, you must fill out a form. During this online process you must provide different information to LinkedIn, through a digital form. You give out your name and email address. Then you will receive an access code by email to complete the report of a deceased person. In this process LinkedIn requires the following information:
- The deceased LinkedIn username.
- Latest organization where the deceased worked.
- Your relationship with the deceased.
- The web address of the LinkedIn profile.
- The email address that the deceased used for the LinkedIn account.
The completed form is automatically sent to LinkedIn for control. Once approved, the profile account will be closed and deleted.
Delete Google-account (Google+, Gmail en Youtube).
To use the various Google services, users must also create an account. With one account they can be logged into Google+, Youtube, Gmail, for instance Analytics. Usually a Gmail username will be used for this purpose: the e-mail service from Google.
To delete a Google Account of a deceased person, Google has a very discreet procedure, which consists of two phases. In the first stage you need to send certain information, including the death certificate and your name and address.
When Google receives this information, you will receive a message with instructions for phase 2. In this phase, you need to take some legal action, such as requesting an injunction in a US court.
Because Google takes or sees the privacy of the user very important, they notify that there will be no guarantee that an account will actually be eliminated. The relevant data can be found at the Google Help Center.
Inactive Account Manager and settings
Since 2013 you can specify preferences for a Google account. For example, you can set if if you don’t login for 3 months then your account will be deleted. This period is called a time-out period. If you still cannot login after an alert by SMS or email, you will be informed with confidential information. You can give instructions to Google to make data such as emails, video and history also available to them before your account is deleted.
The account of the deceased Foursquare user can be deactivated by a family member or other authorized person. To do this you must send the following information to the Support Team via Foursquare privacy@foursquare.com:
- The username or profile of the deceased.
- Copy of the death certificate.
- Copy of proof of identity (e.g. passport, driving license, etc.).
- A signed statement containing your name, email address, other contact information, and your relationship with the deceased.
- A brief description to show that the account actually belonged to the deceased person. This is important if the name on the death certificate doesn’t match the name on the account.
Op basis van de aangeleverde informatie deactiveert Foursquare het account en wordt het profiel verwijderd. Alle checkins, badges en overige informatie wordt dan verwijderd. Foursquare kan overigens geen toegang geven aan derde om in te loggen op een account van een overledene. Ook niet aan familieleden of andere nabestaanden.
The account of the deceased Pinterest user can be completed by a family member or authorized person. longer be used. If you want to close the profile of the deceased, it can no no longer be used. If you want to close the profile of the deceased, it can no longer be used.
The relatives can send an email to care@pinterest.com with the request to close the Pinterest profile. The following information is required:
- Your own name.
- The name of the deceased.
- The email address that the deceased used to Pinterest account.
- The link to the Pinterest profile (pinterest.com/USERNAME).
- Proof of death (e.g., death certificate or news article).
- Your relationship with the deceased including supporting evidence such as marriage booklet or family pedigree.
Pinterest will respond immediately by email and then delete the account and profiles.
The account of a deceased Instagram user can be removed if the families report the death. This is done with a similar form as Facebook.
The information that Instagram need to adjust the account, and the profile of a deceased person is:
- Your Instagram username (if you are registered).
- Your own email address.
- Full name of the deceased.
- The Instagram user name of the deceased.
- The web address of the Instagram profile of the deceased.
- Death Certificate.
When a member of SchoolBANK is deceased, a relative can contact SchoolBANK through service@schoolbank.nl.The relative of the deceased can choose to unregister or place an indication of death in the profile.
If a relative wants access to the registry, then SchoolBANK create a new password and send the login data to him/her.
If you want to delete the Flickr account and corresponding photos of the deceased then you should report it to Yahoo!. They are the owner of the photo site Flickr. Yahoo! can’t give you access to the profile because of privacy rules, but can delete the account, including all pictures.
To report you must supply the following information to Yahoo!:
- A letter with the request to delete the account. You must specify the user name explicitly.
- A certificate stating that you are the authorized person who takes care of the affairs of the deceased.
- A death certificate.
The information can be sent to the Legal Department by email legalpoc-support@yahoo-inc.com.
