论社交性网络账号的“可继承性”

On the“Inheritability”of the Social Network Account

社交性网络账号符合财产的效用性、稀缺性和可控性的基本特征,具备作为财产的正当性,应当被纳入继承法确认的财产范畴。目前网络平台在其用户服务协议中规定社交性网络账号归属于运营商、不得被继承的做法,因排除了用户的主要权利而显失公平,属于格式条款的无效情形,社交性网络账号应归用户所有;而社交网络运营商以隐私保护为由拒绝社交性网络账号继承的做法,其目的在于维护自身利益,而非保护死者隐私。现代民法对于死者隐私的保护,实质上是保护死者近亲属和相关利害关系人的身份利益,所以在社交性网络账号继承与隐私保护之间没有本质冲突。基于对用户意志的尊重,社交性网络账号继承规则的建立应当尊重用户的选择权,可通过注册时的预先设置由用户在生前对账号能否继承、由谁继承及继承内容进行确定。

The social network account conforms to the basic characteristics of the utility,scarcity and controllability of property.It has the legitimacy as property,and should be included in the property category confirmed by inheritance law.At present,the network platform stipulates in its user service agreement that the social network account belongs to the operator and shall not be inherited.It is unfair due to the exclusion of the main rights of the user,and belongs to the invalid situation of the format terms.The social network account should be owned by the user.And social network operators refuse to inherit the social network account for the sake of privacy protection.Their purpose is to protect their own interests rather than the privacy of the deceased.The protection of the privacy of the deceased in modern civil law is essentially to protect the identity interests of the close relatives of the deceased and related stakeholders,so there is no essential conflict between social network account inheritance and privacy protection.Based on the respect of users’will,the establishment of inheritance rules of social network account should respect users’right of choice.The users shall determine whether to inherit,who to inherit and what to inherit through the preset settings at the time of registration.