Most people probably spend more time on Facebook than they’d like to admit — but what happens to your Facebook page when you die?
New Hampshire is one of the several states trying to figure that out. State Rep. Peter Sullivan introduced legislation to allow the executor of an estate control over the social networking pages of the dead. The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted last week to give Sullivan more time to write an amendment that begins a study of the issue.
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Sullivan, a Democrat from Manchester, per the proposed bill, would allow control of someone’s Facebook, Twitter, and even Gmail to be passed to the executor of their estate after death. He believes that if if this bill passed, it would bridge a gap in policies of social media sites regarding posthumous users.
“This would give the families a sense of closure, a sense of peace. It would help prevent this form of bullying that continues even after someone dies and nobody is really harmed by it,” Sullivan said.
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Five other states, including Oklahoma, Idaho, Rhode Island, Indiana and Connecticut, have established legislation to regulate an individual’s digital presence post mortem.
Opponents of Sullivan’s bill hold that contracts and provisions between the social media user and the site already lay out what happens to the page once the user passes. Also, they believe the bill is unenforceable and incomplete, while others contend the issue would be better covered under federal law.
In 2010, a similar bill was sponsored by Oklahoma state legislator, Ryan Kiesel, called the Digital Property Management After Death Law. While Kisel supports state’s efforts to bring clarity to this issue, he is one of the believers that it is a case that should be eventually taken up by the federal government.
“Facebook and other online providers have changed their privacy policies to keep up with the times, but we still see a lot of flux within different sites like Facebook , Flickr, or Google, for example.” Keisel told ABC News. “The federal government should pass uniform laws to govern all digital assets because it is quite difficult for an estate to have to navigate endless numbers of digital policies postmortem.”
Now a civil rights activist, Kisel compared a digital legacy to the distribution of tangible assets after death.
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“In Oklahoma, if you are administrator of the estate of a deceased person’s house and you find a box under their bed, you are well within your right to see what’s inside that box and if property is worth distributing, you should distribute it accordingly.” Kiesel told ABC News that the same idea goes for digital legacy.
Facebook recently celebrated the ninth Anniversary of its launch, and currently has over 1 billion active users. That number, up from just a million users in 2004, hints that the is likely an enormous number of Facebook pages that are currently occupied by the deceased.
As is, Facebook has created a memorial function allowing Facebook pages to become memorials after they have died.
“Please use this form to request the memorialization of a deceased person’s account,” the site reads. “We extend our condolences and appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this process.”
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-death-172350356.html
Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning. Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander
