{"id":765108,"date":"2026-06-28T05:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T05:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765108\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T05:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T05:09:18","slug":"marija-lost-her-husband-five-years-ago-but-meta-wont-memorialise-his-facebook-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765108\/","title":{"rendered":"Marija lost her husband five years ago but Meta won’t memorialise his Facebook account"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been five years since Marija Milisavljevi\u0107 lost the person she says could “light up a room”.<\/p>\n

Her husband of eight years died from leukaemia in 2021.<\/p>\n

“I miss everything about him, I miss his presence \u2026 just the comfort of having my person in the room,” she said.<\/p>\n

Like any grieving loved one, Ms Milisavljevi\u0107 tried to salvage mementos that were left behind.<\/p>\n

One of those things happened to be a Facebook account.<\/p>\n

Ms Milisavljevi\u0107 said she attempted to memorialise the now inactive social media account, but her applications to do so never saw the light of day.<\/p>\n

Memorialising an account involves declaring that an account user has died, to preserve or close down the account entirely.<\/p>\n

“I’ve attempted a few times,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I kind of gave up.”<\/p>\n

Digital afterlife<\/p>\n

How often do people think about their social media afterlife?<\/p>\n

According to Bj\u00f8rn Nansen, an associate professor in the school of computing and information systems at the University of Melbourne, not often enough.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

In a memorialised Facebook account, a “remembering” banner is added to a person’s profile. (ABC News: Gabriela Rahardja)<\/p>\n

“It still remains a pretty marginal thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Nansen said one of the main risks of not managing a digital legacy prior to death was inaccessibility.<\/p>\n

That means losing traces of a person’s online identity.<\/p>\n

Those virtual assets could hold sentimental or even monetary value including videos on social media, cryptocurrencies, email or chat threads, website domains or music playlists.<\/p>\n

For Ms Milisavljevi\u0107 it’s all sentimental but important, nevertheless.<\/p>\n

“There is a real stress over not being able to keep the memories alive,” she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Nansen said managing one’s digital asset should be considered “life admin”.<\/p>\n

“You need to think ahead,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But then obviously it also touches on death, which people don’t want to think about \u2014 their own demise.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f8rn Nansen says people need to start thinking about what will happen to their digital assets after they die. (Supplied: Bj\u00f8rn Nansen)<\/p>\n

It’s a sentiment shared by wills and estate lawyer Lisa Berte, who said the lack of awareness could create issues for people close to the deceased.<\/p>\n

“People aren’t quite aware that these issues can become an issue once you pass away,” Ms Berte said.<\/p>\n

“We’re not really focused so much on our social media as being something of worth, of monetary value.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So, we don’t really turn our mind to that when we’re estate planning.”<\/p>\n

A memorialised account<\/p>\n

Death is unavoidable, and social media platforms are aware of it.<\/p>\n

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, which reportedly has about 3 billion users, gives account holders the option to decide what happens to a profile when the user passes.<\/p>\n

In its afterlife, a personal account becomes a memorialised account.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other platforms including LinkedIn, Yahoo and X (formerly Twitter) depend on other users to report a deceased person’s account before memorialising or disabling them.<\/p>\n

Facebook was ahead of most platforms, introducing memorialisation in 2009.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Legacy contacts on Facebook can memorialise or permanently delete a deceased person’s account. (ABC News: Gabriela Rahardja)<\/p>\n

But there’s a catch: account users need to assign a “legacy contact” to verify their death.<\/p>\n

This needs to be organised before their actual death.<\/p>\n

With no legacy contact assigned for the account, Ms Milisavljevi\u0107’s options were limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[His death] was quite sudden, like he was 34,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When you’re that ill, you don’t really think about what’s going to come next, he’s just trying to survive.”<\/p>\n

She sent through the required documents to Facebook, including a death certificate, to prove her husband had died and that she was his next of kin.<\/p>\n

She never heard back.<\/p>\n

“You have to put in an application and then you wait for an e-mail [from Facebook],” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen one come through. You’re kind of at a standstill.<\/p>\n

“It’s really heartbreaking to lose a part of them that is still here.”<\/p>\n

The loophole<\/p>\n

Ms Berte, who works at Melbourne-based law firm Kalus Kenny Intelex, said digital estate management could be “very hard” to navigate, even more so when the laws “haven’t kept up”.<\/p>\n

Under Victorian property laws, an executor could be assigned through a will to manage the property and assets left by a deceased person.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lisa Berte says it is still uncommon for personal social media accounts to be included in estate planning. (Supplied: Kalus Kenny Intelex)<\/p>\n

In Facebook terms, that person is equivalent to the legacy contact.<\/p>\n

According to Ms Berte, when someone doesn’t have a will, and therefore no assigned executor, existing laws would intervene.<\/p>\n

“When you don’t have a will, the law determines who can make an application to be in control of your estate,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Our laws haven’t kept up with imposing an obligation on these [social media] companies to recognise the authority of your executor \u2026 this is a bit of a loophole in the law at the moment.<\/p>\n

“It is beholden to the companies and their policies.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner said the government agency did not regulate the memorialisation of deceased accounts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photos in a memorialised Instagram account are preserved. (Instagram)<\/p>\n

“We encourage tech platforms to provide clear, accessible and responsive support pathways for families navigating these situations,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“eSafety may be able to assist in circumstances where a deceased person’s account has been accessed and used in ways that cause online harm to others.”<\/p>\n

An easier process<\/p>\n

After years of back and forth with Meta, Ms Milisavljevi\u0107 may have given up, but said she would not forget.<\/p>\n

Now happily re-married, she wants Facebook to make the process of memorialising an account easier for grieving families.<\/p>\n

“Don’t make it harder [for people] who are already grieving and going through a tough time,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Berte said Meta-run platforms were just “the tip of the iceberg” when it came to digital assets that people might want to preserve.<\/p>\n

“Today, many people have digital photo libraries stored in iCloud, messaging apps with treasured conversations, online investment accounts, loyalty programs,” she said.<\/p>\n

“And now with the increasing use of AI, AI accounts containing years of carefully crafted personal and professional work.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marija Milisavljevi\u0107 hopes to preserve photos and videos that were posted by her late husband. (Supplied: Marija Milisavljevi\u0107)<\/p>\n

The ABC contacted Meta about Ms Milisavljevi\u0107’s case and why her memorialisation application had not been approved, but the company declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Instead, Meta redirected the ABC to a page where users can lodge memorialisation requests.<\/p>\n

“You can block them [the account], you can unfriend them, you can report the page, but you can’t memorialise it,” Ms Milisavljevi\u0107 said.<\/p>\n

“For a platform that is designed or meant to be designed for human interaction, it’s really not created for real humans.”<\/p>\n

What social media platforms offer:Facebook, Instagram and Threads (Meta)<\/p>\n

To permanently delete or memorialise profiles after death, users must appoint a legacy contact<\/a> who will manage the profile after their death. If no legacy contact was assigned, other users can request to delete or memorialise<\/a>\u00a0an account.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Google<\/p>\n

Google account holders can appoint an “inactive account manager<\/a>“. The feature allows users to decide who can download your digital assets after you die and set the duration for how long the account should be considered to be “inactive”.<\/p>\n

X (formerly Twitter)<\/p>\n

The platform doesn’t have a memorialisation feature. X users can request to deactivate<\/a> an account belonging to a deceased or incapacitated person.<\/p>\n

TikTok<\/p>\n

The platform doesn’t offer account memorialisation features. Users can use a feedback form<\/a>\u00a0to request an account of a deceased person be\u00a0deleted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LinkedIn<\/p>\n

Users can report and request to memorialise<\/a> another user’s account. The platform also allows an authorised person of the deceased to request the account to be deleted.<\/p>\n

Yahoo<\/p>\n

Users can request an account of a deceased person to be closed<\/a>. The platforms also allow users to access content of the deceased person’s account with specific documentation. This feature is only available in the United States.<\/p>\n