Facebook, YouTube, TikTok…: the challenges of digital death on social networks

In our hyperconnected society, the question of digital death is emerging as a major issue. What happens to our personal data, our photos, our publications on social networks once we are no longer there to manage them?

This problem, long neglected, is now the subject of particular attention from legislators and web giants. In France, in 2014, the CNIL took up the subject. Two years later, the law for a digital Republic laid down the first milestones of a legal framework. It recognizes the right to digital death and allows Internet users to define guidelines concerning the conservation and communication of their personal data after their death.

These directives may be general or specific, and designate a person responsible for their execution. The relatives of the deceased are also granted certain rights. In the absence of instructions, they can request the closure of accounts, their updating or access to content. However, these procedures can be complex and time-consuming, as each platform has its own procedures.

Specific devices for each social network

Faced with these challenges, the web giants have gradually put in place specific systems. Facebook, which established that there could be more deceased users on this social network in 2065 than living registered users, was a pioneer in this area. Since 2015, it has offered the “legatee contact” function.

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This option allows you to designate a person who can manage the account in memorial mode after the death. Google, for its part, has developed an “inactive account manager” to define what will happen to the data in the event of prolonged inactivity. YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, relies on its parent company's inactive account manager. As for TikTok, the platform still remains behind on this issue, only offering a simple death reporting procedure.

But the proliferation of accounts and platforms complicates the management of digital heritage for the deceased's loved ones, especially since digital death raises ethical questions: should everything be preserved in the name of the duty to remember or should we prioritize the right to forgetting?