Facebook haunted by ghosts in its machine
Facebook haunted by ghosts in its machineFacebook may have suffered a spate of criticism over tentative changes in privacy settings but now an altogether different scare story has emerged.
Ironically, despite knowing more about more people than anyone or anything in history, the social network heavyweight struggles to pinpoint when one of its users has died.
It is a situation that the site is scrabbling to correct after upset users complained of receiving messages from friends and loved ones from beyond the grave.
These are no resurrections however but merely the product of automated messages generated by the sites social algorithms suggesting inactive friends “get back in touch.”
Automating the process of filtering dead users from their livelier counterparts is fraught with difficulty, not least because quick fix solutions such as an ‘Are they dead’ button opens the door to mischief making.
No one knows precisely how many Facebook users have passed on but a recent survey suggested the figure could be as much as 3.2%. As the networks demographics age in line with society that trend is only going to become more pronounced but there are no easily identifiable solutions.
Initially Facebook simply erased the profiles of users who had passed away but it now recognises the importance memorialising such records to aid an online mourning process.
Users interested in converting such pages must fill out a form on the site and provide proof of death for review by a member of Facebook’s team.
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Comments
Interesting points - I have unfortunately had 3 good friends pass away in the last year - all of whom were FB users to varying degrees.
It is important to preserve memory of departed loved ones and the digital mausoleum of a profile page is a great snapshot of an individual's life.
Unfortunately, however, if my experiences of dealing with Facebook Admin is anything to go by - I may be waiting until it is my time to go 6 pixels under before any response is gained.
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