Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Facebook suggests messaging dead friends

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 26, 2009 at 3:58 PM

LONDON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Facebook users in Britain said the Web site's latest feature, which encourages people to contact old friends, is bringing up deceased people as suggestions.

The new feature, which went live during the weekend, appears in the form of an automatically generated box suggesting the user logged in "reconnect" with a specific friend they have not contacted in a while. Dozens of users reported the box was suggesting deceased friends only hours after the feature was launched, Sky News reported Monday.

A 27-year-old Facebook user who gave her name as Emma said she was distressed to be confronted with a photo of a deceased friend when she logged into the social networking site.

"Like many of his friends I haven't deleted his profile as that would feel weird. I'm sure thousands of Facebook users are in the same position," she said. "When someone dies there doesn't seem to be much you can do about their profile … There should be a way of recognizing this on their profile or Facebook should remove the feature altogether to avoid causing offense."

More than 900,000 Facebook users have joined a group calling for the Web site to do away with the new feature.

A Facebook spokesman said the company is investigating the complaints.

Topics: Old Friends
Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Cheerleaders of 2012 Tibetan pilgrims celebrate New Years Oscar nominations 2012
2011: The year in space The Most Desirable Women of 2012 The best kisses
Additional Odd News Stories
Your Daily Horoscope
The almanac
1 of 20
Cold snap across Europe
View Caption
fark
'Rasputin was my neighbor' and other true tales of time travel
Chicago learns the hard way that elementary school children can sneak gang symbols into contest...
Lots of rainbows in Seattle today as WA becomes the first state to pass marriage equality by popular...
Photoshop this pensive person
Why XXXXX mothers are superior. Never has there been a more misleading headline
Judge on the other side of the gavel after dismissing wife's and friends' tickets