Facebook Won’t Remove My Dead Brother’s Page

Sylvie’s brother died at a tragically young age. It’s awful enough that his loved ones have to face life without him, but they also have to deal with his continued presence on Facebook. People still comment on his … wall, timeline, whatever Facebook is calling a person’s profile this week. They don’t want to un-friend him, which feels wrong, but Facebook won’t delete or memorialize his pages, even when family members have submitted his death certificate and specifically requested to have them taken down. She doesn’t know where else to turn.

I have the same problem. I have identified myself and sent copy of my brother’s death certificate to have his 2 Facebook pages removed. One was removed very quickly and I thanked them for that. They refuse to remove the second page saying that “Many people use Facebook groups and Pages to come together and share memories about deceased friends and loved ones. We generally allow these memorial groups and Pages to exist, but we’ll remove content that violates our policies. This includes posts that single out and bully a specific person, or that include threats or direct statements of hate.”

There is no violation on the account but people are making comments on the page, nothing offensive as per Facebook’s definition, but we, the family do not want to see these comments. Moreover, my brother had a 12 year’s old son and it is very hard for him to see that people are making comments. He doesn’t want to “unlike” his late father’s page.

I have written numerous times to Facebook’s help center and they don’t even bother replying anymore. I don’t know what to do to pressure them to have the page removed. I shouldn’t have to beg them. The e-mails that I am receiving are automatic response and it is to their discretion to respond or not to e-mails, I feel so helpless.

I am at lost. I don’t know what to do.

Yes, Facebook allows memorial pages, but that’s not what Sylvie wants. Her family wants the page gone, and Facebook seems as unwilling to do that now as they were when we posted about a similar situation four years ago. We’re going through our file of contacts to find someone at Facebook who might be able to help. If you’ve successfully had a relative’s page taken down, let us know how by e-mail.

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