(Source: Shanghai Observer) Recently, WeChat officially announced that it will no longer reclaim inactive accounts. This means that even if an account has not been used for a long period, its data, including Moments and chat records, will be preserved. Coincidentally, around the same time as WeChat's policy adjustment, a user registering a music account with a new phone number automatically logged into the account of the late singer Coco Lee after receiving a verification code. These two pieces of news have prompted deep reflection among netizens about life, memory, and digital heritage.
Modern individuals unknowingly leave an overwhelming number of "traces" in the vast digital space. According to a report from IDC titled "Data Age 2025," 491 exabytes of data are generated on the internet every day. This translates to an average of 4,909 data interactions per person daily, which includes every WeChat reply, social media post, and email sent. Additionally, we possess countless accounts on platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin. Each registered account, usage record, and other interactions on these apps compile extensive personal digital footprints, which may exceed our imagination: YouTube adds approximately 2.6 million new videos every day, Douyin users spend an average of 9.77 hours a month on the platform, WeChat users send over 4.5 million messages daily, and around 120 million people post on Moments each day. This data, comprising text, images, and videos, converges into an ocean of digital information, which not only reflects our current lives but also constitutes a significant source of digital heritage.
The new topic of "digital heritage" has become increasingly urgent amid the aging "silver wave." Just like the real world, the internet is also getting "older." Data from the China Internet Network Information Center shows that as of the first half of 2025, 33.5% of internet users in China are over 50 years old, and this group's engagement with the internet is continually expanding. More elderly individuals are leaving behind traces and memories of their later years on the internet: live streaming, online shopping, watching short dramas, chat records, balances in payment accounts, investment records on financial platforms, and online medical records. When life approaches its end, this digital data—holding emotional significance and financial value—faces the risk of going "unherited" or being subject to "privacy leaks."
Who holds the power after death? As per the Personal Information Protection Law enacted in 2021, close relatives may exercise rights such as reviewing, copying, correcting, or deleting the deceased's personal information to maintain their own legitimate interests, thus providing a legal pathway for managing a deceased individual's digital information. However, standardized, unified rules for handling digital heritage have not yet been established in practice. Moreover, most internet platforms stipulate in their user agreements that "account ownership belongs to the platform, and users only enjoy the right to use," implying that platforms currently hold the discretion in handling the deceased's "digital assets."
As the issue of digital heritage protection gains attention, platforms are beginning to take a more human-centric approach. In addition to WeChat's promise not to reclaim accounts, platforms like Bilibili, Douyin, and Weibo have introduced "memorial account" features, allowing relatives to apply to lock accounts upon providing relevant proof, thus preserving the content published by the deceased for friends and community members to remember. For instance, after the passing of Bilibili anchor "Mocha Official," who died of illness, she was designated a memorial account due to her touching story. At the time of her death in 2021, she had about 200,000 followers; currently, her follower count has exceeded 1.7 million, with her last video garnering over 10 million views.
Some ordinary users are also beginning to realize the importance of "digital heritage" and take action. In an interview, an internet game streamer named Xiao Zhao, aged 36, shared that he has set up a will, clearly stating that his streaming account will be passed down to his brother, who shares the same passion for gaming. Xiao Zhao hopes this unique inheritance will not only provide financial support to his brother but also continue to symbolize their love for gaming, serving as a valuable memory and emotional bond between them. Besides streaming accounts, personal accounts on WeChat, QQ, Alipay, and investments in gaming accounts and virtual currencies, along with Taobao shops, have all become focal points in people's digital inheritance planning. Writing wills for these "assets" has become a common choice among younger individuals.
According to the "White Paper on Wills in China," the number of young people aged 18-30 who have made wills has increased by 300% compared to five years ago, with 21.5% of those born in the 1990s and 19.7% of those born in the 2000s including virtual assets in their wills. From 2017 to 2023, 4,343 young to middle-aged individuals in Shanghai made wills, accounting for about 24.01% of the national total.
American neuroscientist David Eagleman posits that there are three forms of death: the body ceases to function, the body is buried, and the name is spoken for the last time. Forgetting is the final aspect of death. As online existence seeps into daily life, digital heritage remains the fingerprint left in time. Protecting digital heritage is, in essence, preserving past memories, allowing those who come after to hear echoes of yesterday's laughter and tears in the gaps of code.
It is important to call for personal "treasuring" and "planning" of digital heritage; however, this alone cannot fully resolve the issue. Legal and ethical considerations need to catch up. Proper arrangements for digital heritage are an essential issue that society must confront in the digital age.