Earlier in February, we'd reported that Facebook had granted a grieving father his wish to see his recently deceased son's Look Back video. At the time, a Facebook
statement had indicated the company would be working on ways to help "celebrate and commemorate the lives of people they have lost", and that it would be have "more to share in the coming weeks and months."
The social networking giant has on Friday announced via a post in its newsroom, titled
'Remembering our loved ones', that it has made changes to the manner in which it preserves its users' legacies:
Up to now, when a person's account was memorialized, we restricted its visibility to friends-only. This meant that people could no longer see the account or any of its content unless they were Facebook friends with the person who passed away. Starting today, we will maintain the visibility of a person's content as-is. This will allow people to see memorialized profiles in a manner consistent with the deceased person's expectations of privacy. We are respecting the choices a person made in life while giving their extended community of family and friends ongoing visibility to the same content they could always see.
The company also announced it would now accept requests to share the Look Back videos of deceased loved ones, and provided a link where the requests can be made. "Today, we're also glad to begin offering a way for anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one to see that person's "Look Back" video."
Look Back videos
were introduced on Facebook's 10-year anniversary in February, an experience that enables people on Facebook to see a personalised movie or a collection of photos with their biggest moments since they joined Facebook. The social networking giant had said it was a "small gesture to thank the over one billion people who are on Facebook by providing a unique way to look back at some of their biggest moments."
Users were able to share their Look Back videos on their timelines, and later, were given the functionality
to edit them. The Look Back video initiative is very much like the Year in Review compilations Facebook has offered at the end of the year, but this time, it's in video form, and highlights the biggest events from the user's entire time on the social network.
With Friday's announcement, Facebook has made it clear it was working towards addressing the complexities involved in preservation of legacies, and added that "changes like this are part of a larger, ongoing effort to help people when they face difficult challenges like bereavement on Facebook. We will have more to share in the coming months as we continue to think through how best to help people decide how they want to be remembered and what they want to leave behind for loved ones."