Managing Digital Inheritance in the Era of Digital Transformation: What is “Digital Legacy”?

Abstract

The primary objective of this article is to analyze the legal status of the specific term “Digital Legacy” which lately appears in technology-related articles introducing a new function of social media accounts and smartphones under Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code. The main reason for raising awareness of legal issues lying under the “Digital Legacy” comes from the status quo of Thai society, the direction of which faces digital transformation with a firm intention of leveling up the country using a digital economy. Meanwhile, there is a high tendency for the expansion of the Thai population using the Internet, smartphones, and social media. Even though in Thailand, there has been no such case of heirs requesting accessing their deceased person’s social media or smartphone account, which may deem as digital inheritance, the issue is around the corner. This kind of case has occurred around the globe, and the author will provide real cases with court judgments from the United States and Germany as examples. The supreme court of Thailand already made a judgment in an analogous case of interchanging messages via Facebook, in which the legal status of those messages and interactions sent can be interpreted as written evidence acceptable by the court. In this paper, the author will examine the legal status of the “Digital Legacy” and whether it could fall under any “Forms of Wills” according to the law of succession of Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code. If the answer is no, the next question will be whether the “Digital Legacy” could be applicable to any legal principle under Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code.