When someone close to them leaves them, people miss conversations, hugs and looks, and with the development of social networks, that physical emptiness spilled over into the virtual world as well.
Accounts of loved ones disappear with them or remain as digital reminders of their life, and the decision about the future on the networks often falls on the closest ones.
"I was thinking about what to do with my mother's order after her death, we were mostly in favor of a memorial order, but even today, almost four years later, we have not implemented it," Katarina Milošević, a tourism expert from Belgrade, told the BBC in Serbian.
There are also those who believe that a memorial account is not an ideal solution, but that they would like their profiles on social networks to be closed after death, and one of them is Jelena Šain, who has been using Facebook since 2008.
"Neither would I manage someone's account posthumously, nor would I like someone to do that in memory of me.
"It is not ethical to have insight into other people's private conversations, and it is not pleasant when you know that among your friends on the networks you have deceased people," this architect from Pancevo told the BBC in Serbian.
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Close to five billion people worldwide used social networks during the third quarter of 2023, which makes up 61,4 percent of the population on the planet, according to the site's data data report.
As many as nine out of 10 Internet users use social platforms, it added.
It is expected that at the beginning of the next century, the number of deceased will exceed the number of active users, and this would happen even earlier if Facebook did not get new users, the magazine says. Time, which refers to Oxford University research.
Facebook is the most popular social network with 3,03 billion users, slightly fewer people use YouTube (2,49 billion), Vocap and Instagram (two billion each), followed by WeChat (1,33 billion) and TikTok (1,22 billion). , according to data from the statistical company The report of Statista.
The Facebook and Instagram platforms allow the deceased user's profile to be turned into a memorial account (memorialized account), to remain active or to shut down completely, it is stated on site Meta, the platform's owner.
X (formerly Twitter) does not offer the option to save the profile in memory of the deceased and it is only possible to deactivate the account in case of death or inability of the owner to use it, it was explained on the website of this technology company.
Accounts of deceased users can be the target of abuse, warns Saša Živanović, former head of the High-Tech Crime Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia.
"Photos, data and videos can be used to create a fake account under a different name, to extort money from acquaintances and friends who do not know that the person has passed away, or to appropriate confidential data and correspondence," Živanović cited some examples in an interview with the BBC in Serbian .
What is a memorial order?
When Milosevic tried to turn the deceased mother's profile into a memorial order, she ran into an obstacle.
"Facebook asked me to send a death certificate, but I wasn't ready. "Whenever I started doing it, I couldn't push through, because my heart tightened," says the 31-year-old.
"It will soon be four years since she has been gone, and the account is still active," he adds.
When Facebook is provided with proof that someone has died, the account automatically becomes a memorial profile, unless it has previously decided otherwise, according to company website.
The contents of the mention profile remain visible, but the account is no longer recommended to potential virtual friends (People You May Know), and those from the friends list will not be informed about the user's birthday.
Next to the user's name, the message "memory" appears in that case, and no one will be able to log in to that account and manage it, unless the original owner specified a contact for inheritance (legacy contact).
A contact is another user, usually a family member or friend, who will be able to change cover photos, publish the last post from that account, or request that the profile be deactivated.
It also allows him to access data and correspondence, delete existing or add new friends on this network.
Analysis by Joe Tyde
with the BBC, technologiesa
The fate of our social media accounts may vary depending on the technology platform we use.
There are various approaches, but companies put the privacy of the deceased first - they will not share details and you will be able to access some data, such as photos and videos, only through special requests, sometimes court orders.
More recent social platforms, such as TikTok and Snapchat, do not have any rules regarding the accounts of deceased users.
Accounts will exist and be active until a family member notifies the company of the user's death and wishes to terminate the profile.
Facebook and Instagram carry out the process of "memorialization".
You can delete the pages created by the deceased, possibly the data of those pages, if you prove that you are a close relative.
Google, the owner of YouTube and G-mail, will implement a similar procedure, unless the user changes the settings called "inactive account".
These settings give you the ability to decide what happens to your Google accounts and data provided you are inactive for a certain period of time.
You can also choose someone to take care of these accounts and leave them a farewell letter that they will read when you die.
Jelena Šain uses Facebook and Instagram to publish photos, share music and correspond with friends, and since using these platforms, she has shared thousands of recordings, photos and data.
Although she didn't have to make a decision about what would happen to a loved one's social media accounts, she thought about how she would act in that situation.
As she says, she heard about the option of creating a memorial account, but that would not be her choice.
"I'm not a supporter of such profiles and I would like one of my friends or family members, with proof of death, to shut down my accounts when I'm gone," says Šain.
This would avoid "abuse and inconvenience", because it is not pleasant to see posts from the profile of someone you know has died, explains the architect.
How is inheritance on social networks legally regulated?
The number of Facebook users who have passed away could reach 4,9 billion in the world by 2100, according to a 2019 Oxford University study, reports the British The Guardian.
Despite the fact that the number of such orders is growing, this phenomenon is not precisely regulated by law.
"Transferring accounts on social networks is considered intangible heritage and is therefore in a gray area.
"Whereas, for example, a business website or a collection you've bought through the iTunes app can be left to someone in a will," said James Norris, president of the UK Digital Heritage Association, on the show BBC Minute.
Even the laws in Serbia do not recognize this type of digital heritage, because new phenomena are traditionally slowly introduced into the legal order, says lawyer Duško Majkić for the BBC in Serbian.
"An account on social networks is not considered intellectual property or an author's work, but it can be something that you have shared there - a thought, a text or a photo," explains this lawyer from the law office Živko Mijatović and partners.
However, he does not see an obstacle that, in addition to movable and immovable property, the heirs also receive Facebook or Instagram accounts through the will.
"When drawing up a will, the principle of 'imperative will' is used, which means that you can do whatever you want with your rights and property, if it is not expressly forbidden by the norms," explains Majkić.
By using other people's accounts on social networks, such as those whose owners are no longer alive, you will not commit a criminal offense according to current laws, points out a lawyer specializing in intellectual property issues.
"However, this can lead to abuses that are criminal acts: posts from those profiles could commit fraud, cause general danger or panic," concludes Majkić.
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Abuse of deceased accounts
Due to the active profiles of users who have died, problems can arise if data, photos and other content fall into the hands of those who want to abuse them.
This can be done by downloading data, photos and videos without controlling the profile, but also by using the entire account, says Saša Živanović for the BBC in Serbian.
"Mostly, they are looking for not too close friends of the deceased who may not have known about his death, so they ask them to pay them money under the pretext that they have lost documents or that they are in a difficult situation," explains the former head of the High-Tech Crime Department of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia .
This type of fraud is a common form of abuse of social networks in Serbia, the BBC in Serbian has already written about to that topic, and fake profiles can also be used for phishing, a cyber attack carried out by sending messages and links over the Internet.
However, many forms of abuse are rarer and more difficult to implement with the orders of the deceased, because the close circle of friends knows that this person does not exist and will not easily fall for fraud, concludes Živanović.
Katarina Milošević is not afraid of abuse, but she also does not want to leave her mother's account active.
"I believe that I will soon be ready to shut it down completely or turn it into a memorial account.
"There are many beautiful things there that I would like to remember and that would make me smile sweetly," concludes this girl.
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