When we talk about death, what are we talking about? Is it the self-disappearance of "dust returning to dust", is it "a person's real death, is he forgotten by everyone", or "the body dies, the data lives forever, and the deceased exists in technology"?
In the recently released "2021 China Will Library White Paper", virtual property such as WeChat accounts, QQ, Alipay, and game accounts is a common type of property in post-90s wills. The importance that young people attach to their online accounts is evident.
Although the individual has passed away, the forms built into their networks still exist, and a large number of digital traces have become "digital heritage". What happens to a user's social platform account after the death of a user, and what happens to his digital legacy? Nandu reporters interviewed domestic video platforms and social platforms in this regard.
TikTok
In 2021, 30 users will be registered as memorial accounts for the deceased
In 2021, Liang Jing, a top domestic cross-country runner, was unfortunately killed in the Gansu Silver Marathon cross-country race. Liang Jing Douyin has 101,000 fans, and almost all of the 711 works released are her own competitions and training routines. At present, Liang Jing's Douyin personal homepage has appeared a memorial sign: "We hereby set up a memorial account for Liang Jing's deceased." Time flies, but may the memory be eternal. ”
The relevant person in charge of Douyin said in an interview with Nandu reporter that in 2021, Douyin will set up memorial accounts for the deceased for 30 users. For the suspected deceased account reported by the user, the platform will require the feedback user to provide personal identification certificate, proof of relationship with the deceased, death certificate and other proof materials, and once the relevant materials are reviewed and confirmed, the platform will set a protection status for the account. After the account is set to protect the status, the mobile phone number, password, and real-name information cannot be changed to avoid the risk of account theft and illegal use.
For the deceased user, his account still contains personal privacy parts, such as chat history, friend list, etc., is his immediate family eligible to hold the account password?
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Douyin said that for the account identified as a deceased user, the legitimate heirs such as their immediate family members can transfer the financial assets under the account to the heirs' own accounts after submitting the corresponding materials, including jitter coins, live broadcast income, creation income, activity red envelopes, sound waves, dou+ coins, change, etc.
"However, if you need to inherit and continue to use the account of the deceased user, you need to provide proof of the relevant will. Otherwise, after Douyin turns on account protection, in order to protect user privacy, anyone will be prohibited from logging in/posting/modifying/deleting account content. "If the deceased user has a will, allowing the heir to inherit his Douyin account, after the heir completes the account inheritance action, he can send a top post, respond to a friend request, update the avatar and background image, etc., but not have the right to log in to the account, view messages and delete friend requests."
Station B
Explore whether a virtual account can be set as a commemorative account
It is reported that Station B is the first Internet company in China to launch a commemorative account. On December 24, 2020, Station B issued an announcement that from today, for users of Station B who have unfortunately passed away, the platform will list their accounts as "commemorative accounts" and protect them after obtaining confirmation and consent from their immediate family members.
The announcement of station B said that in recent years, some users have died early due to illness or misfortune, and set up commemorative accounts to "commemorate that they once existed in the same world as us, once saw the same scenery, and rejoiced or saddened for the same things." The commemorative account is for everyone to remember the deceased and remember the bits and pieces they left on Bilibili.
Many netizens were touched by the heart-warming move of Station B. Under the announcement of the B station, netizens also listed the deceased up masters, clicked into the accounts of these up masters, even if they have been stopped for a long time, the message barrage of nostalgia is always new.
It is reported that at the moment of successful application, the account will be frozen, and no one will be able to log in. At the same time, the functions of charging and tipping of the account will also be turned off one by one. On the personal homepage of the deceased, there will be a mourning message from the official B station.
The relevant person in charge of Station B said that the copyright of the original manuscript belongs to the user, and after the user's death, it belongs to his legal heir, and the heir can rely on the certification materials to request the original manuscript income in the deceased user's account from the platform. For other content produced by users, such as comment bullet screens, station B respects the user's pre-life settings; the user's pre-life settings are still exploring and exploring.
According to nandu reporters, more than 50 users have applied for it, and eight users have successfully set up commemorative accounts. It is worth noting that Station B is about to revise the "commemorative account" function, and after the revision, it will provide users with a choice of information processing methods under the commemorative account, as well as corresponding settings.
In the process of promoting the "commemorative account" function, in addition to solving how to confirm the death of the user and how to deal with the property in the account, Station B is also currently facing new problems. The relevant person in charge of Station B said that for the question of whether the virtual account should be inherited, because the concept of death in the real society is not strictly applicable to virtual characters, so in the face of the death of the voice actor behind the virtual character or the person in the middle, whether the virtual account can be set as a commemorative account, we are also further exploring and solving.
Relatives logged into the account of the deceased can only be used to commemorate the occasion
March 18, 2022, the tenth anniversary of weibo blogger @walking meal, has always had someone leave a message under her last dynamic for more than 3,000 days and nights. "Walking Rice" died of depression, and the message under the last Weibo posted before his death has exceeded 1 million, and the forward has exceeded 116,000, and the Microblog of Walking Meal has become the emotional sustenance and talking tree hole of many "life rebuilders".
However, the follow-up "walking meal" Weibo trumpet was stolen, and the number thief used his account to cheat. On September 17, 2020, Weibo issued the "Announcement on the Protection of the "Account of the Deceased"", in order to protect the privacy of the deceased and prevent his account from being stolen, Weibo will set a protection status for the deceased's account, that is, cannot log in, cannot send new content, cannot delete content, and cannot change the status. Sina Weibo will judge the identity of the deceased of the account user through a variety of means such as news reports, feedback from relatives and friends, and manual identification, and will not be confused with the long-term inactive "zombie number". After the identity of the deceased is verified and confirmed in a timely manner, the protection will be activated immediately. In fact, before the announcement, Weibo's protection of the deceased's account was already a routine work.
In terms of protecting the privacy of the deceased's Weibo account, the Weibo party said that if the deceased's relatives have special requirements and provide relevant certification materials (death certificate + household registration book / marriage certificate valid content photo /scan) to Weibo, Weibo will hand over the deceased account to his relatives, but the account can only log in to commemorate the occasion, and cannot publish new content and change account settings.
For the deceased account, the relevant person in charge of Weibo said that in order to respect the user to the greatest extent, Weibo believes that it is still necessary to maintain the same state as the deceased account and the user.
Douban
Or provide the option of giving users the option of planning the disposal of their digital estate in advance
Among the many groups of Douban, Douban Cemetery is not often eye-catching, but it is rated as "the memory and warmth of the Internet".
Founded on October 8, 2012, the group now has 12,454 members, and the group's profile has only one sentence: I would like to use this group to commemorate the late Douban users. Each post is titled after name and year of birth and death, like a tombstone, the post is a biography of the deceased, a link to the personal homepage, and Douyou recalls, shocks, sighs, and wishes in the comments.
There is a line above the homepage of the deceased, which reads "The user is deceased, this account has been locked and protected", and the bottom of the avatar also provides a flower offering button for the bean friends who came to mourn, and when clicked, it shows "You put a bouquet of camellia next to his head".
The relevant person in charge of Douban said that for users whose platform has confirmed their deceased status, the platform will transfer them to the deceased state. In order to ensure the security of the account, the account will be locked and protected, and the original binding information will be unbound and login will no longer be supported. Their close relatives can cancel their accounts or resume normal status by submitting relevant information.
Under normal circumstances, their close relatives can only modify the status of their accounts, and they cannot obtain account passwords. If a close relative raises a claim for privacy-related content, Douban will handle it in accordance with the law.
For the deceased user to set the deceased state, mourning icon, for the spiritual significance of the deceased user, the relevant person in charge of Douban said, "The existence of the account itself is the way of the user's mental property continuation, which can continue to radiate its social circle layer for a long time, so as long as the user or his close relatives and entrusted contacts do not propose to cancel, we will choose to retain their account and its content creation during their lifetime, and also retain the spiritual connection between users."
The person in charge also said that the handling of the deceased account involves the precipitation of the user's own creative value, but also involves sensitive issues such as account protection and privacy protection, and due to the unclear relevant laws and regulations, the platform will be very cautious in its handling.
"In the future, we will consider allowing users to set up a 'proxy contact' for the account in advance, and the 'entrusted contact' has the right to take care of the user's account after his death." The person in charge also revealed that in the future, consider adding "entrusted contact settings" and "automatic deletion settings" to allow users to make choices for the disposal planning of digital heritage in advance.
How do users clear their "digital traces"?
For the protection of deceased user accounts, the platform strategy is also a manifestation of humanistic care.
For ordinary users who are still alive, if they want to delete their traces on the platform, the platform also provides a "logout function".
All users such as Douyin provide users with fast and effective elimination options, and all users have the right to self-erase traces according to law. After the cancellation is completed, Douyin will retain the relevant log records for no less than 6 months, and then delete the user's personal information or anonymize it. This information includes, but is not limited to, identity and content information submitted by users, friendships, published video content, comments, likes, favorites and other identities and content information.
Station B also provides self-service account cancellation service, after the cancellation of the ID name will be changed to "user has logged out (number)" words, but there is a video released by the main up to say that you can still find the video, audio, comments that the user originally voted for.
Weibo users can also eliminate traces by logging out of their accounts. The platform provides a self-service logout function, users can enter the account logout page, according to the page prompts to cancel the account.
The Douban party said that the copyright and other related rights of the content generated by the user on the Douban platform belong to the user himself. The Douban platform provides users with the function of canceling their accounts from the beginning of the establishment of the website, and users have the right to demand the elimination of the traces left on the platform and can independently delete the content they publish.
"Qingming Season Remote Mourning" series of reports
Coordinator: Fang Jun, Dong Xiaoyan
Written by: Nandu reporter Dong Shuyun Intern Zhang Liti