Digital inheritance triggers fierce debate

Plans outlined

Wu, the young woman, who is one of the center's clients, stated her inheritance wishes for Baidu Wangpan, a cloud service provided by Baidu, as well as her account with the online game Honor of Kings.

As the game allows "skins and equipment purchased by players" to be transferred, Wu decided to pass on her character in the game to a friend.

Baidu Wangpan has no plans for dealing with the accounts of users who have died, but Wu said she wanted her will to serve as a reference should relevant legislation be introduced in the future.

"No one could tell me how to plan for Baidu Wangpan, where I have stored a considerable amount of valuable resources," she said. "I'm sure that in the future, the policy or the rules will be improved. What I need to do now is make my personal wishes clear."

Network service providers worldwide are looking for answers to the problem of digital inheritance.

According to a study published by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute in 2019, the number of deceased Facebook account holders could reach 1.4 billion by 2100.

Facebook is one of the first social networks to introduce "memorialized accounts". In 2009, it launched memorial profiles of deceased users, while six years later, it introduced a feature to allow users to designate "legacy contacts" for their accounts after they die.

According to Sina Weibo, as of March, the number of monthly active users on the platform reached 530 million, while WeChat had 1.25 billion such users by June 30. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics puts the number of deaths in China in 2020 at about 10 million.

To prevent accounts of the deceased being stolen or interfered with, Sina Weibo launched a site in September 2020 to give such accounts "protected" status. This means that they cannot be accessed, items can't be posted on them, or contents deleted.

Three months later, the videosharing site Bilibili also launched functions providing for deceased users. It said it had heard of the deaths of several users in recent years, and the move was aimed at "commemorating those who existed in the same world as us, saw the same scenery, and rejoiced or voiced sorrow over the same things".

Netizens have different views on whether they want their accounts to be retained or removed after they die.

In August, the online news platform Toutiao carried out a survey based on netizens' microblogs and comments. Topics included "How to deal with social accounts after death "and "Should I delete my WeChat when I die". The survey found that 20.5 percent of respondents wanted to delete their digital history, while 79.5 percent chose to retain it.

People who opted to retain their history believed it could serve as a memory for the living, while those who chose to delete it said they did not want their privacy to be exposed.

Wu wants to retain her digital history. She said the idea of writing her will came after she learned of the deaths of some online influencers in recent years, prompting her to think about how netizens should deal with their online history.

"Our generation has bonded very tightly with the internet, where I have stored a lot of data. It feels as if there is a digital version of myself online. If I were to die, someone could still see me in the virtual world, which I think is amazing," Wu said.

"My grandfather died many years ago. When I read his notes, I feel as if he is standing right in front of me.

"But my generation rarely writes in notebooks or diaries, but more in the cloud. If I were to leave this world, future generations would still understand me and have access to the resources I have cultivated on the internet. I think this is very meaningful."