Facebook enhances memorialized user accounts

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Tuesday improved features of social network accounts kept as memorials to deceased members of the online community.

Memorialized accounts are intended to serve as venues for friends and family to share memories and thoughts of those who have passed away, and are secured to prevent anyone from logging in, according to Facebook.

Updates included addition of a separate tributes section where people can share posts, while not changing the original timeline of an account.

“We know the loss of a friend or family member can be devastating — and we want Facebook to be a place where people can support each other while honoring the memory of their loved ones,” chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a post.

Facebook added controls for people who manage memorialized accounts, and improved artificial intelligence to prevent profiles of people who have died from appearing in “painful ways,” such as sending birthday reminders to friends, according to Sandberg.

“These changes are the result of feedback we heard from people of different religions and cultural backgrounds as well as experts and academics,” Sandberg said.

More than 30 million people view memorialized profiles each month, according to Facebook, which four years ago added an option for users to name a “legacy contact” with the authority to manage an account after someone’s death.

The update gave legacy contacts the ability to moderate posts shared in the new tributes section, according to Sandberg.