Oklahoma has one. Nebraska is considering one as well. It’s a law that allows friends and relatives of a deceased person to take control of that person’s social media accounts. Under such a law, sites like Facebook and Twitter are considered digital assets that could be closed or continued by the representative of the deceased person’s estate.
Without such a law, a woman from Oregon spent two-years battling Facebook over her deceased son’s Facebook page. After the mother found her son’s Facebook password, she emailed Facebook asking that his page be kept active so she could review it. Facebook then changed the password and locked her out of the account. Facebook eventually agreed to keep the page active for 10 months. Facebook’s current policy puts the page of a deceased user in a memorialized state restricted to friends only. However, Facebook does allow a download of the account data if mandated by law or prior consent was obtained from the deceased user.
Illinois does not have a law a social media law. The growing use of social media, electronic communications and online banking makes it increasingly important to keep a list of your online logins and passwords as part of your Estate Plan. Accompanying that list should be instructions about how to handle your online accounts in case of disability or death so that your accounts can either be managed or disabled without unnecessary delay.
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