Iowa Residents Want All Their Social Media Posts Erased When They Die

What are Iowa residents hiding on their social media accounts?  Cause apparently, once they kick the bucket, they want all their social media accounts wiped as well.  In a new survey from redact.dev Iowa has the highest percentage of people that want to see their social media accounts automatically erased when they die.

85% of social media users in Iowa think their entire post history should be completely erased after their death. That is the highest percentage in America.  And while that is a high number that doesn't want a social media legacy, the survey also shows that only 13% are concerned about existing social media content posted in the past.

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If you are afraid of what your social media will look like when you are dead, then you'd think people would be more afraid of what it looks like while they are alive.  This would explain why 46% of users say they’ve gone back through their social media history and found old posts that they have deleted.  25% also say they’ve set their social media accounts to ‘private’ when job hunting.  38% of social media users say they used their spare time during the course of the pandemic to clear their accounts of any embarrassing posts.

Are people deleting posts of drunken nights on the town?  Maybe all those pictures with their ex had to go.  Maybe, it was time to take down all the hot political takes.  In the survey over half (52%) of Iowans avoid posting about politics on their social media accounts for fear of being ostracized by the online community.

Facebook allows users to appoint a legacy contact, who will have certain rights to the account when the original user dies. Google also allows users to plan their post-mortem account management by sharing certain data with a trusted contact via the Inactive Account Manager.

You can read more on the survey at redact.dev.