Facebook could become digital graveyard according to new study

London: Facebook could become a digital graveyard with more dead users than the living according to a study by researchers affiliated with Oxford University.

The study looked into two different scenarios, one which predicted that at least 1.4 billion members of the social media platform will die by 2100. Based on 2018 user levels that could result in dead Facebook users outnumbering those that are alive by the year 2070.

The second scenario, which focused on what would happen if the company's growth continued, predicted the number of dead users could rise as high as 4.9 billion before the end of 2100.

“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,” said Carl Öhman, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the OII.

"The management of our digital remains will eventually affect everyone who uses social media, since all of us will one day pass away and leave our data behind.

"But the totality of the deceased user profiles also amounts to something larger than the sum of its parts. It is, or will at least become, part of our global digital heritage."

In the first scenario, Asia's share of dead users rises rapidly to account for nearly 44 percent by the end of the century, with India and Indonesia accounting for nearly half of those profiles.

“On a societal level, we have just begun asking these questions and we have a long way to go. The management of our digital remains will eventually affect everyone who uses social media, since all of us will one day pass away and leave our data behind. But the totality of the deceased user profiles also amounts to something larger than the sum of its parts. It is, or will at least become, part of our global digital heritage.”

In the second scenario, Africa would make up majority of dead users. Nigeria, in particular, would account for over 6 percent of the total. Western users, on the other hand, would only account for a minority, with the US being the only country to make the top 10.