How to handle social media accounts when a relative dies
Accounts in social media are not automatically removed when a person dies. The death must be reported to the social media giants. Something that often lands on the relatives.
If nothing is done, the account continues to remain. The friends can then get unwanted notifications about birthdays several years after the death.
Facebook is the largest social media platform among the elderly. Here are two options for death: to close the account or turn it into a memory page.
In both cases need Relatives submit evidence that the relative is dead, and that you are a close relative yourself. This is done via a formal, where Facebook states that you have to attach a death certificate.
– But death certificates can be quite difficult to obtain for the common man. It is enough with a register extract that you get through the Swedish Tax Agency: a death certificate with genealogy, says Ulf Lernéus, associate director at the Swedish Funeral Home Association.
Many relatives employ a funeral home for help to extinguish accounts. The funeral home often takes help from the company Cynk, which specializes in managing social media accounts belonging to people who have passed away. The number of cases that cynk handles has increased greatly: from an average of 15 per week in 2020, to an average of 45 per week in 2025.
– A lot has happened. People who help bury their father have a much greater digital interest today. It will be a high priority, says Niklas Forsenberg, CEO and founder of cynk.
In some cases it goes smoothly and quick to close an account. In other cases, it takes longer and is more complicated, explains Forsenberg.
There are several things you can do when you still live to make it easier for your relatives.
The first is to make a list of their social media accounts, preferably with passwords. The list can be attached to a will, or included in the White Archives or Life Archives. One problem, however, is that passwords change, and quickly become outdated, says Ulf Lernéus at the Swedish Funeral Home Association.
– Maintaining it is not easy. Therefore, we usually propose that you also write who should take over the account.
Today one can indicate yourself A relative as a so -called surviving contact person on Facebook. The contact person becomes responsible for the memorial side if you go away, and can take easier measures, such as pinning fixed posts and changing the image.
If you want a memory page, the Swedish Funeral Home Association recommends that you choose a surviving contact person when you are still alive.
– Otherwise, it will be a memory account that no one controls. No one owns the account, says Ulf Lernéus.
It is also possible to register in advance if you instead want the profile to be removed as soon as Facebook gets information about the death.
It is common for Facebook profiles that have not been extinguished after deaths as part of the grief process. Today, many congratulations write to relatives in social media, even after they have passed away, says Ulf Lernéus.
– I think it’s a little nice, that you remember a person even though it is gone. If there is any time we remember a deceased person then it is on the birthday. It is a cultural change that has taken place.
Before redoing a profile For a memory page, however, one should think about a lap extra, says Niklas Forsenberg. Memory pages on Facebook are difficult to remove if you change later.
– Facebook claims that the memory pages are their accounts, and do not want to remove them. So my tip is to leave the page until you really know what you want to do with it, he says.
Today, it is more common to choose to remove the account after a close relative’s passing, than to convert it into a memory page.
– The big trend is that people are much more aware that social media is good to have, but you do not want to keep them when you have passed away, says Niklas Forsenberg.
