Facebok is launching a new tributes section for memorialized accounts, additional controls for people who manage memorialized accounts and improved AI to keep the profile of a deceased loved one from appearing in painful ways.

Facebook says the changes are the result of feedback received from people of different religions and cultural backgrounds as well as experts and academics.

The new tributes section creates a separate tab on memorialized profiles where friends and family can share posts — all while preserving the original timeline of their loved one.

In 2015 Facebook introduced a feature that lets people choose a legacy contact — a family member or friend entrusted to care for their Facebook account when they pass away. Legacy contacts can now moderate the posts shared to the new tributes section by changing tagging settings, removing tags and editing who can post and see posts. This helps them manage content that might be hard for friends and family to see if they’re not ready.

While minors can’t select legacy contacts, Facebook recently changed its policies to let parents who have lost children under 18 to request to become their legacy contact.

In addition to creating supportive tools, Facebook also now only allowing friends and family members to request to have an account memorialized.
Once an account is memorialized, Facebook uses AI to help keep the profile from showing up in places that might cause distress, like recommending that person be invited to events or sending a birthday reminder to their friends.