Facebook will remove messages mocking deaths

"I am so glad she's dead" or "That's what she gets" will no longer be up on your Facebook page as the social network giant will now remove such scurrilous comments about users who have passed away and has tweaked community standards for memoralised profiles to make it more bearable for the grieving families.

Facebook will no longer allow comments praising or supporting the death, disease or harm of an individual even though posts like "I am so glad she's dead" traditionally do not violate the social media company's self driven "community standards".

Laura Hernandez, assistant manager on the content managing team of Facebook said at the first ever International Press Day at company's sprawling headquarters in Menlo Park that any family member can now report harassment on behalf of the deceased.

Earlier, bullying had to be reported by the victim. Since it is not possible in case of a deceased, family members can now report harassment, she said announcing the policy change.

Facebook will block content against high publicity deaths as well.

Prior to highly talked about death, if the person had any post that allowed public commenting, the profile can be flooded with spam and unkind messages from strangers, said Laura.

"When this happens, we know it is a painful experience for the family of the deceased," she said adding "we've updated our policies to allow families to request to change the privacy settings of the timeline from public to friends only. This helps alleviate abuse."

Facebook began profiles to be memoralised and users can also pay tributes to the deceased.

It is like creating a massive catalogue of the dead and the new regulations is an attempt to preserve its sanctity. Even if profiles are not memoralised, Facebook algorithms ensure that friends don't get birthday updates and other information about the people who have passed away.

(Gautam Datt can be contacted at datt.gautam@gmail.com)

--IANS

gd/in