This policy is part of the terms and explains how Everly acts when something about a memorial is contested. Different things go wrong with memorials, and they need different answers.
When a dispute is opened about a memorial, we set it to private, stop all edits, and preserve everything as it stands: every memory, file, reply and the audit log of who changed what. Both sides are told. Deleting would destroy the record needed to decide fairly, and would be unrecoverable if the report turns out to be the bad-faith act. A frozen memorial cannot be removed by its owners until the freeze is lifted (terms, section 16).
This is the one case that does not wait. A report that the person is alive removes the memorial from public view immediately, before anyone has looked at it. If the report was wrong, the family loses nothing but a few days of public visibility. The exception is a memorial a person made about themselves while living: it stays as it is, and a person reads the report like any other.
The memorial itself is not the problem; something in it is. We freeze the memorial, ask the contributor and the owners for their account, and decide whether to hide the contribution. The person who added it is told why. Where the complaint concerns one contribution, we hide that contribution rather than freeze the whole memorial when we can. A memorial is for remembering, not for settling disputes about the estate, the will or the family; content whose purpose is to attack a living person may be hidden (terms, section 9).
Anyone may create a memorial for anyone; no family is excluded by someone else's memorial, and two memorials may exist for the same person. Where the dispute is about who should control a memorial, we follow the same order the relevant state uses for who controls funeral arrangements. In Georgia that is section 31-21-7 of the Official Code: a person the deceased designated, then the surviving spouse, then a majority of the adult children, then the parents, then a majority of the siblings, and onward. We do not invent our own ranking, and a decision under this policy has no legal effect on the estate or on anything outside Everly (terms, sections 4 and 13).
The relationship statement made when a memorial was published (terms, section 10) is evidence in these disputes. A statement shown to be false is grounds for removing the memorial and closing the account, and may be provided to the person harmed by it.
Freeze is the immediate answer. Then the order in section 4 says who may control the memorial, and the terms say what stays: a contribution stays on the memorial when its contributor leaves or is removed, because the family's record would otherwise have holes in it (terms, section 11). Beyond that, we decide case by case, and we will write more of this policy from real cases rather than guess.
An intimate image of an identifiable person published without their consent, including one made or altered by software, is removed within 48 hours of a valid request, together with any identical copies we can find, as federal law requires (terms, section 14). This does not wait for a freeze or for the other side's account. Send the request through the report form or to hello@everly.memorial.
A copyright complaint follows the notice and counter-notice procedure in the terms (section 15): we hide the material, tell the person who added it, and restore it after ten business days if they send a counter-notice and no suit is filed. Accounts that repeatedly infringe are closed.
Any owner may remove a memorial they own. It becomes private at once, every owner is told, and for 30 days any owner may cancel or export everything; then it is deleted from both providers (terms, section 16). No report is needed for that. A dispute is when someone other than an owner objects, or owners disagree, and then this policy applies instead.
A person reads every report and every account. Everly may hide, unpublish, freeze or remove any memorial or contribution at its own discretion, including in response to a lawful request or a court order, and is not required to be neutral between the parties. We tell the people affected what we did and why, unless the law prevents it. Our decisions are about what appears on Everly. They are not findings of fact about anyone, and they decide no question of law.
Use the report form, or write to hello@everly.memorial. Say which memorial or memory, what is wrong, and how to reach you. A living-person report acts at once; an intimate-image request within 48 hours; everything else is read by a person and answered as soon as we can. Reports and the record of what we did are kept as long as the memorial exists, and afterwards as long as a dispute or legal obligation requires (privacy policy).