Facebook could have more dead users than alive by 2070, study shows

Facebook has been notorious for breaking some serious privacy regulations in the past and still has many lawsuits facing to this day. The social media giant has a user base of mostly mature people. A study has revealed that by 2070, Facebook’s dead users will outnumber the alive ones. It does make one wonder what would happen with those users’ personal data.

Facebook's scenario in 2070

According to the case study done by the University of Oxford, published in the journal Big Data and Societyin 2019, if Facebook keeps expanding at such a rapid pace, there will be more dead users than alive ones. Factually, Facebook’s ideal users are older and after the next 40-something years they wouldn’t even exist.

The researchers also shared that the by the year 2100, around 1.4 billion Facebook users would have died, and their phantom accounts will be left behind. According to The Boston Globe, the lead author of the study, Carl Öhman, a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) said:

These statistics give rise to new and difficult questions around who has the right to all this data, how should it be managed in the best interests of the families and friends of the deceased and its use by future historians to understand the past

The digital footprint of expired users

Currently, Facebook has a seemingly simple process of dealing with the profile of deceased users. In the past, there have been instances when the automated birthday post generated on a user’s birthday has been made, even after the user has expired. To handle this issue, the user’s family has to do a verification process.

As for their personal data, it will continue to exist even after they’ve passed away, with their profile on Facebook. The data left behind will forever remain on social media and researchers argue that it's not ideal to leave a plethora of this data in the hands of a giant company, on the other hand, some researchers suggest that the data will help the future generation, study our past and get the better knowledge of the then old tech.

Sources used:

Sky News - Dead could outnumber living on Facebook within 50 years

The Boston Globe - The dead on Facebook may outnumber the living in 50 years, study says

All That's Interesting - The Amount Of Dead Users On Facebook Will Outnumber Living Ones By 2070, New Study Says

Big Data and Society - Are the dead taking over Facebook? A Big Data approach to the future of death online

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