Questions raised about Instagram memorialisation in Noah Donohoe inquest | Computer Weekly

"The immediate impact of it was that even Noah's mother was not able to access material from his Instagram. We had to go through a process with the court to get the material, said barrister Peter Coll KC, representing the coroner."

"A report from Meta provided to the coroner's court showed that the family's shared email, named after a pet tortoise, had been used to fill in a form requesting that Meta memorialise Donohoe's account on 28 June 2020, the day after he died."

"Memorialising effectively froze the account, making its contents, including Noah Donohoe's messages, inaccessible to his mother and to the coroner's inquiry."

Noah Donohoe's Instagram account was memorialized one day after his death was reported by the BBC, without the knowledge or consent of his mother, Fiona Donohoe. The memorialization was initiated using the family's shared email account, which was linked to a form requesting Meta freeze the account. This action rendered the account's content, including Noah's messages, inaccessible to both his mother and the coroner's inquiry. The incident caused significant distress to Fiona Donohoe and potentially obstructed the coroner's investigation into the circumstances of the teenager's death. Meta's report confirmed the family email was used to submit the memorialization request on June 28, 2020, the day after Noah died. Former detective chief inspector Clive Driscoll has previously called for Meta to implement stronger verification procedures before memorializing accounts.

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