Facebook is killing people, posting erroneous ‘Memorialized Account’ messages

Facebook may be telling you you’re dead today. It appears to be a bug that’s hitting many accounts, one that we’ve seen first hand.

Below is an example of what I saw when I went to Facebook just a few minutes ago:

As the top, you can see that it says “Remembering Danny Sullivan,” something that only shows for memorialized accounts. These are accounts that have been preserved on Facebook only after a family member or friend puts in a request that’s been approved.

In other words, Facebook thinks I’m dead. And reports from Twitter are that it thinks many other people are dead. Here are just three of many examples:

Following a difficult #election season, Facebook has killed all of us. pic.twitter.com/jEkXsVgFWP

— Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone) November 11, 2016

My friend is having the worst day.
She just found out from Facebook that she's…well… dead….
(FYI: she's not dead) pic.twitter.com/Hz3oGobTSB

— Karen B (@karenb0716) November 11, 2016

apparently myself + everyone on #facebook is dead. was tuesday really the end of the world?? pic.twitter.com/00sl1QyAUA

— hilary ♡ (@philahila) November 11, 2016

The messages seem to have appeared not just for the account holders but for people who go to their pages. That means people might mistakenly learn from Facebook that someone has died. This includes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

Zuck dead pic.twitter.com/J8y5LbfQBz

— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) November 11, 2016

However, the bug does not appear to be passing such an alarming message through Facebook’s news feed stream.

The deatheating on Facebook also appears to have been short-lived. Soon after this story was posted, I was back to life, and others reported the same.

We’re checking with Facebook for what’s happening, if anyone is still alive there, and will update as we learn more.

Postscript. Facebook sent this statement:

For a brief period today, a message meant for memorialized profiles was mistakenly posted to other accounts. This was a terrible error that we have now fixed. We are very sorry that this happened and we worked as quickly as possible to fix it.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.