Digital legacy, commemorative accounts are also arriving on TikTok

TikTok was the only one of the big platforms that didn’t have one yet specific procedure for the so-called digital legacythat is, to establish what happens to the account of a deceased person.

This is no longer the case, because precisely in these days the social network has revealed how it works its digital legacy and has added new options in the app to activate it: it looks more like that of Instagram than to that of Facebookin the sense that you can memorialize an account but you cannot bequeath it to someone.

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by Emanuele Capone

April 11, 2024

How to create a memorial account on TikTok

Meanwhile, from what we understand, only i close family members of the deceased person (i.e., spouses, civil partners, parents, guardians, children and siblings) can request the activation of this procedure, which is carried out starting from section Settings and privacy of the app by clicking on Report a problemthen up Account and profilethen up Manage accounts and finally on the new voice Reporting a deceased person’s TikTok account.

For the procedure to be successful, the applicant must provide documents that prove both the death of the person and their family relationship, such as death certificates and more; again from the app Settings it is also possible to file a complaint if you believe that an account has been memorialized by mistake.

How a memorial account works on TikTok

Likewise, the memorial account remains as such indefinitelyunless an immediate family member files an appeal and requests its removal.

This is basically all that can be done with a deceased person’s profile, which otherwise cannot be touched: “No one can access a memorial account nor change the profile of the account, publish new videos or send new messages from the account”, they clearly explained to us from TikTok.

Graphically, the commemorative accounts are distinguished by the wording In memory which is added next to the creator’s name and have (will have) very limited visibility: they are not considered suitable for the passage in the feed of For youare not shown among the suggested accounts, they cannot be used for functions Duet e Stitch. However, they can still be found through TikTok’s in-app search engine and their existing content as well can still be commented onjust as “the comments sent before the commemoration will remain visible”.

@capoema