• by Colin Kirkland , 9 hours ago

With the number of deceased users potentially rising across major social-media platforms, TikTok has quietly integrated a new setting that allows users to preserve their accounts after their passing.

According to various screenshots shared by app researchers on Threads, TikTok is prompting users with the ability to “Choose someone you trust to manage your account after you pass away,” naming what the company calls a “legacy contact.”

After the user's death, a legacy contact will be granted the ability to update the user’s bio and accept new friend requests on the user’s behalf, while also downloading copies of the user’s posts, managing privacy settings, and requesting account deactivation. 

Deleting an account can only be done by the user or through a request process made by a family member or legal representative. 

Legacy contacts are restricted from logging into the deceased user’s account, removing or editing posts, reading the user’s messages or comments on other posts, and removing existing friends. 

Users are not required to select a legacy contact for their account. They also have the option to select “Delete after death,” effectively erasing their account from the TikTok platform. 

Choosing to implement a post-mortem account-management option may be TikTok’s attempt to help users gain a sense of empowerment over their data and social media persona after their death.

However, as longtime users age, this feature may also help the platform identify the growing number of deceased users as a way to support a more straightforward advertising business. 

According to a 2019 report from Statista, on Facebook, accounts for the deceased are estimated to outnumber accounts for the living by 2070, numbering up to 4.9 billion accounts for deceased individuals.

TikTok’s legacy account launch comes over a decade after Facebook launched its own legacy contact feature, allowing a friend or family member to maintain their Facebook account after they die.