Recently, a netizen posted about receiving a verification code while registering a new phone number for a NetEase Cloud Music account, only to be automatically logged into the account of the late singer Coco Lee. This incident has reignited public interest in the handling of "digital inheritance." Previously, the topic of "Will someone's WeChat Moments disappear after they pass away?" had trended on Weibo. WeChat's customer service responded that accounts that remain inactive for an extended period may be reclaimed by the system for security reasons. Opinions among netizens vary: some believe social media accounts are digital assets, making system reclamation unreasonable; others understand the platform's actions are based on resource management and security considerations.
As digitalization advances, individuals generally possess multiple online accounts. The question of how to handle a deceased user's social media accounts, gaming accounts, and other forms of "digital inheritance" has become a pressing issue.
Conflicts Over Digital Inheritance According to Wang Qi, an associate professor at the School of Law at Beihang University, the platform's reclamation of long-inactive accounts is often for safety, resource management, and privacy protection reasons—idle accounts are susceptible to misuse and occupy server resources. However, for users and their families, these accounts are not merely tools; they represent "digital relics" that hold emotional significance and memories. Such controversies illustrate the conflict between rational governance rules of online platforms and the emotional needs of users. Wang noted that this highlights the difficulties inherent in managing digital assets.
While the Civil Code acknowledges the legal status of virtual property, it fails to clarify whether social media account data, which carry personal significance and emotional attributes, can be inherited. This has led to an imbalance between the platform acting according to service agreements and the user asserting their rights. On the other hand, while the platforms prioritize safety governance and privacy protection, they often overlook users' emotional needs, such as commemorating lost loved ones.
Gao Lei, a council member of the Marriage and Family Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society, indicated that this situation reveals a conflict between commercial logic and humanistic concern in the digital age, as well as exposing a legislative and ethical vacuum in managing digital inheritance. Using WeChat as an example, she explained that the platform's stance is based on user service agreements: account ownership belongs to Tencent, while users merely enjoy usage rights. Long-term inactivity is deemed voluntary relinquishment of rights, granting the platform the authority to reclaim the account. Although this aligns with commercial rules and technological governance, from the perspective of users' relatives, reclamation may represent a "heartless" erasure of digital memories, leading to feelings of deprivation.
Wang pointed out that the root of the disagreement lies in platforms viewing accounts as services that can be reclaimed, while users regard them as valuable digital inheritances. Currently, legal definitions, inheritance, and the handling of "digital inheritance" remain ambiguous, leaving platforms to act based on agreements as the safest choice.
Inheritance Challenges Due to Multiple Attributes Wang Qi defines "digital inheritance" as all data created, stored, or accumulated by a deceased individual in an online environment, which retains economic or emotional value after their passing. He analyzed that some data has direct economic value, such as account balances and game items, and falls under the Civil Code's definition of legal property that can be directly inherited. However, other data is governed by contractual relationships, implying ownership belongs to the platform, and users only possess usage rights. These can be handled via contractual inheritance paths, where heirs may request the platform to open accounts for emotional memory purposes, and the platform cannot exclude main rights through standard clauses.
The Civil Code, from the perspective of civil basic law, fundamentally acknowledges the legal status of online virtual property, encompassing it within the protective legal framework. However, specific rights ownership rules and inheritance issues are still under exploration and improvement. Gao stated that the Civil Code defines inheritance as "individual legal property left by a natural person's death," thus "digital inheritance" must be property that holds asset attributes in digital form. Consequently, social media accounts or their property attributes can theoretically be recognized as virtual property and potentially inherited.
She revealed that there have already been several successful judicial cases handling "digital inheritance" in China's current judicial practice, such as the short video account inheritance case in 2023 and the virtual real estate inheritance case in the metaverse in 2025. In these instances, the courts recognized the property attributes of the "digital inheritance" involved, breaking through the platform's standard clauses and ruling in favor of the heirs.
Both experts emphasized that for private chat records, emails, and personal statuses, such data does not generate direct economic value for third parties and possesses personal attributes, thus lacking property status. This data intertwines with personal rights and privacy and should not be inherited, as doing so could infringe on the privacy rights of the deceased and third parties. Therefore, such data should not fall within the scope of "digital inheritance."
However, Gao noted that social media accounts often possess multiple attributes. When an account carries both asset properties as well as personal attributes, the issues of its ownership and inheritance face legal dilemmas. For example, chat records and moments within accounts may involve the privacy of users and third parties, making direct inheritance potentially infringing. In practice, some courts have rejected requests for account inheritance citing privacy protections.
Platforms Should Assume Management Responsibilities Most "digital inheritance" data is stored on various platform systems, raising questions about the platforms' legal responsibilities. Wang Qi suggested that platforms, as direct controllers of data, should fulfill assistance obligations for inheritable portions; for data involved with personal interests, they must ensure safety protection to prevent the infringement of rights. He proposed legal requirements for platforms to implement user consent mechanisms, allowing users during their lifetime to autonomously determine account handling methods (such as deletion, partial opening, or permanent sealing) and designating heirs and their access rights to minimize future uncertainties.
Gao asserted that platforms, as controllers of social accounts and "digital inheritance," should assume legal responsibilities as managers of digital inheritance. When legitimate heirs request the execution of undisputed property rights based on a binding legal document, platforms are obligated to truthfully disclose and assist in executing these rights. Furthermore, before reclaiming inactive accounts, platforms should fulfill sufficient notification obligations and establish a grace period to avoid "one-size-fits-all" policies. Additionally, comprehensive technical and managerial measures must be implemented to ensure the secure processing of "digital inheritance," preventing the leakage or malicious exploitation of the deceased's information.
"Platforms should provide users with humane solutions, opening avenues for inheriting property rights, while also prioritizing privacy protection for social accounts that involve deep personal rights, and offering memorial functions as emotional outlets," Gao emphasized. Wang Qi further suggested that platforms could create dedicated features for "memorial accounts," where an account can transition to memorial status upon an heir's application and verification after the user’s death. The account would then be marked with "Memorial Account" signs, informing visitors that the account owner has passed away; the platform should not reclaim the memorial account and should appropriately safeguard its content, preserving publicly accessible information as a vessel for emotional memories for the heirs and related groups.