With AI, Facebook Wants To Make It Easier to Honor Deceased Loved Ones

Dealing with a a loved one's death is difficult. And it can be even harder if on social media, their profile pages kept popping up as a suggestion, as if they were still alive.

As the largest social media network, Facebook certainly has the most users. And here, the company have dealt with this kind of issue for quite some times.

After all, no one lives forever, and Facebook is just 15 years of age.

The social media giant has allowed its users to memorialize a profile when they passed away, so that they can preserve their memories and make the profile a place to honor that person.

To do this, the person who has been assigned as a legacy contact by the deceased can inform Facebook, or ask friends or family members to request the social network to memorialize their loved one’s profile by filling out a form and including a proof that the person has indeed passed away.

But things can slip through, and this can bring sudden flashback with tears back to the eyes.

To prevent discomfort for those who were left by their loved ones, Facebook is using AI to make sure that the profile of the deceased won't "appear in a painful way," along with the introduction of some tools for memorialization for remembering them.

The 'Tributes' section on memorialized profiles
The 'Tributes' section on memorialized profiles where friends and family can share posts - all while preserving the original timeline of their loved one

In a blog post, Facebook‘s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, said that even if the account hasn’t been memorialized, Facebook‘s AI can keep it away from popping up in the places that might cause distress:

"In addition to creating supportive tools, we also hope to minimize experiences that might be painful. We’ve heard from people that memorializing a profile can feel like a big step that not everyone is immediately ready to take."

"If an account hasn’t yet been memorialized, we use AI to help keep it from showing up in places that might cause distress, like recommending that person be invited to events or sending a birthday reminder to their friends. We’re working to get better and faster at this. "

The AI is meant to prevent deceased person's profile from showing up in suggestions for things like upcoming events, memories, pages, and, groups.

And as for the tools, Facebook includes a 'Tribute' tab to memorialize profiles. This is where people can pay their respects with a message. There is also a better control for legacy contacts to moderate posts on the deceased profile.

For example, moderators of the profile can choose to hide a post that might be uncomfortable for some to read.

"In addition to creating supportive tools, we also hope to minimize experiences that might be painful," continued Sandberg.

"We’ve heard from people that memorializing a profile can feel like a big step that not everyone is immediately ready to take. That’s why it’s so important that those closest to the deceased person can decide when to take that step. Now we are only allowing friends and family members to request to have an account memorialized."

According to Facebook, minors can’t select legacy contacts. But to meet this update, the company have changed its policies to let parents who lost their children under 18, to become their legacy contract.

"We hope it will provide some assistance to grieving parents.".

Published: 
11/04/2019