Instagram is planning to update its platform. It includes adding a new memorialization feature for users who succumbed to COVID-19.
Carrying the "Remembering" banner below the person's account name, this move by Instagram would help remember the people who lost their lives to the lethal disease.
This new feature was first noticed by researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who has exposed different new features in testing on social networks, including Instagram's mute button. Details for the new feature, including the launching date, aren't yet set.
Instagram is working on account memorialization
disclaimer: I’m not actually dead, only in the inside pic.twitter.com/DVIDLLwTAk — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 20, 2020
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How it works
While memorialization has been on the app for quite some time now, the "Remembering" banner just under the user's Instagram profile image has been newly added amid the pandemic outbreak. This alerts other users that the account has been memorialized as the person died.
Currently, own family members can ask that a dead person's Instagram account be memorialized through a form found in the Instagram site. This will protect the account so it doesn't get deleted or altered and will prevent others from logging in to it, regardless of the password. However, buddies can still slide in some DMs even though nobody can view them.
To get a deceased person's Instagram profile deactivated or memorialized, a friend or relatives can document the account to the social media platform. If you're an immediate member of the family of that person, you could request the account be removed from Instagram. You have to fill this form for you to remove the account from the app.
Once an account is memorialized, Instagram, family members can access the said account. However, the profile of a memorialized account doesn't appear different from a regular account.
Posts the deceased person shared remain on Instagram and are seen to the audience they shared with. Memorialized accounts will not also show in public spaces, like Instagram's Explore tab. Furthermore, no one will be able to make changes to any of the account's existing posts or information.
Do other social media platforms have the same feature?
How to manage the accounts of people who have died isn't always a new thing for social media networks.
Facebook has had an account memorialization feature for years. Users started allowing others to make someone as an account heir - a person you trust to manage your profile for you in case you die.
The social media giant has refined the feature, which in its early days allowed you to prank your friends by memorializing their accounts. Facebook now requires extra documentation to determine that person is definitely dead.
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Last November, Twitter announced plans to delete the accounts of inactive customers in Europe as a way of releasing up usernames.
Other users expressed their concern that the move may purge the accounts of dead humans might be devastating for their loved ones. After a backlash, Twitter said it would not move further with a plan until it had developed a device to memorialize the Twitter accounts of these who've died. On Tuesday, Apr. 21, a spokesperson for Twitter told BuzzFeed News the agency has no updates on those plans.
