Social media for Dead People?

In developing social media platforms, there’s a specific demographic that’s often forgotten, despite the fact that it’s ever-increasing and present all over the world. Yes, the people in it may struggle to use their fingers, and hands, and entire bodies for that matter, but unlike when designing products aimed at children, you’ll have close to no legal regulations when developing products for them. Have you considered making a social media platform for dead people?

You might not have, but the developers of After-Me.com, a French consequence of the social media boom of the early aughts, thought it was a great idea to reach out, without a Ouija board, to those no longer with us. Launched in 2011, this fascinating platform offered a new way for narcissists around the world to leave not just a trace, but a big fat smear of their existence to those who would outlive them.

Keep the this-is-authentically-me-except-it’s-actually-a-very-carefully-curated-dump-of-things-I-think-make-me-look-good-isms of Instagram, but add a sense of the urgence of impending death. Then, once you meet your maker, a selection of people of your choice will be lucky enough to have your musings about the best pizza flavour sent directly to them to accompany them through their grief. How After Me didn’t end up rivalling Meta is beyond me. If I allow myself to attempt an autopsy of After Me, I feel like one of the main causes for them not catching on is that Facebook offers exactly what they offer, down to the difficulty of removal of a deceased individual’s data. Have you ever felt tired of seeing a dead person you know’s social media account appear on your feed? There are two options to avoid that unnerving experience. You could consider deleting the account, and, after sending all their personal data to a mysterious person across the pond, you’ll pray that something will be done. If you’re lucky, the account will be deleted, taking with it the ghost of the online persona of the individual in question. Otherwise, you can try to gain access to the account, which without the password is pretty much impossible, unless you want to go down the rabbit hole of contacting a friend’s friend’s dodgy hacker friend on Telegram. Either way, people want to use the internet as escapism, not a sunset-filled reminder of their mortality!

Now seemingly dead (ha. ha.) since 2019-ish, After Me remains a registered business. Are they planning a revival? We may never know. If you’re disappointed you can’t sign up, don’t fret; whether you want to share your memories, personal style, secrets, dreams etc. for posterity or out of boredom, you have hundreds of options that don’t require a dedicated social media platform.

Author: Natasha Litherland

Date: May 2026

Note: The original article can be found here https://bafflement.substack.com/p/social-media-for-dead-people