Facebook changes how it remembers the dead, will offer Look Back videos

Earlier in February, we'd reported that Facebook had granted a grieving father his wish to see his recently deceased son's Look Back video. At the time, a Facebook statement had indicated the company would be working on ways to help "celebrate and commemorate the lives of people they have lost", and that it would be have "more to share in the coming weeks and months."

The social networking giant has on Friday announced via a post in its newsroom, titled 'Remembering our loved ones', that it has made changes to the manner in which it preserves its users' legacies:

Up to now, when a person's account was memorialized, we restricted its visibility to friends-only. This meant that people could no longer see the account or any of its content unless they were Facebook friends with the person who passed away. Starting today, we will maintain the visibility of a person's content as-is. This will allow people to see memorialized profiles in a manner consistent with the deceased person's expectations of privacy. We are respecting the choices a person made in life while giving their extended community of family and friends ongoing visibility to the same content they could always see.

The company also announced it would now accept requests to share the Look Back videos of deceased loved ones, and provided a link where the requests can be made. "Today, we're also glad to begin offering a way for anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one to see that person's "Look Back" video."