Facebook Adds New Tributes Section, Improves Legacy Contacts Policy for Memorialised Profiles

Facebook is tweaking its tools for profiles of people who have passed away. The world's largest social network announced on Tuesday that it will use artificial intelligence apart from improving its existing policies to make things easier for the friends and family of the deceased. Back in 2015, Facebook had started letting another user become a legacy contact who gets control of a profile when someone passes away.

Facebook says it will now start offering more control to the legacy contact. A new section called 'Tributes' will be available where friends and family will be able to post their messages about the person they lost.

Tributes will be a dedicated section on a person's Facebook profile. Friends and family members who post in this section will be able to view others' posts. The legacy contact assigned by Facebook will remain in complete control of this section.

Facebook says over 30 million people view memorialised profiles each month to remember their loved ones. The Tributes section will still preserve a person's original timeline which was maintained while they were still alive.

Users fill up their Facebook profiles with a large amount of data over several years. This includes major life events, photos, status updates, their interests, and so much more. After they pass away, these users leave behind all that data.

Now, when someone passes away Facebook will verify if a person is actually dead before assigning someone else control over their profile. Earlier, anyone could reach out to Facebook and ask for a profile to be 'memorialised'.

When an account has been memorialised, the legacy contact will be able to switch profile and cover photos, post a status update and share a link to a memorial service. Legacy contacts still cannot read the person's private messages posted and received on Facebook.

In addition, Facebook will also use artificial intelligence to keep profiles of people who have passed away from showing up at the wrong places. For example: not showing up birthday alerts of someone who has passed away to their friends and family.

As more and more people spend a larger part of their lives on digital platforms, it becomes essential for companies like Facebook to keep their memories alive. Facebook says it will continue to build and improve its products based on user feedback.