Digital inheritance of social media accounts

Abstract

This article discusses the possibilities and specifics of the digital inheritance of social media accounts. Nowadays, the fate of a deceased user’s account becomes especially relevant and important for heirs since this account can store intellectual property, as well as be a source of income. This situation is caused by the novelty of hereditary legal relations in the digital environment. The study aims to determine the legal nature of a social media account and the ability to inherit its content. While writing the article, the authors used the methods of collecting and studying certain facts, generalization methods, methods of scientific abstraction, methods of learning regularities. The authors of the article provide definitions of the digital inheritance of social media accounts and conclude that these accounts are subject to civil rights. In some cases, the account’s content is the result of intellectual activity and a means of generating income, therefore, it can be classified as a digital inheritance, which can be passed onto heirs by law or under the last will. Several heirs can simultaneously take possession of this property. However, not all rights are subject to transfer. For example, rights associated with an author’s identity cannot be inherited. Heirs do not receive the right to change the results of labor or publish any information under their own name. The account user is able to transfer intellectual property rights to their results and profits to their heirs under a will or by law, while heirs can assign one of the statuses to the testator’s account.