The current PE owner, Blackstone, installed an ex-Facebook exec as CEO of Ancestry/Find A Grave who instituted a gamification system. Thanks to this engagement tweak, many deaths from accidents to natural causes are quickly "claimed" by random people. Quoting genetic genealogist Roberta Estes:
The problem is that finding your loved one’s memorial, often with incorrect information, created by a stranger is unexpectedly jarring, at best. Especially to discover that your family member was only a trophy harvest whose memorial was created hours after they died. Then, having to ask (sometimes beg an unresponsive person) for the transfer of their memorial to you, only to have the creator’s name forever associated with the memorial adds insult to injury.
https://dna-explained.com/2022/06/02/find-a-grave-owned-by-a...
What's particularly disturbing are the "memorials" created by strangers to victims of major accidents, mass shootings, and other tragedies:
Even with the photo and some information hidden, for now, the Uvalde victims’ memorials are still listed. The one above is the same child’s memorial as in Judy’s article.
Even after eventually transferring the memorial to a family member, the original creator is always still listed. Unfortunately, this practice of awarding points and forever listing the “creator” by Ancestry encourages and incentivizes “trophy hunting.”
Family members and genealogists have been infuriated by the Find-A-Grave situation, but Ancestry's management team has basically shrugged and said "tough luck."