Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
The Israeli Posthumous Access to Digital Content Law recently came into effect, making it the world’s first law to govern digital content inheritance (succession). The new law requires online content platforms to publish policies regarding content access after a user dies and allow users to designate who may access which content after their death.
The law applies to all “digital content service providers,” primarily social media platforms. It mandates that they define default settings for posthumous content access. Platforms must provide users with an option to override these defaults by specifying who will have access and to which content. Legislators believe that this model strikes the right balance between the right to privacy and beneficiaries’ inheritance rights.
The law was proposed shortly after the October 7 attacks, where many of the victims were young individuals who posted much of their content on social media. Family members were denied access to their loved ones’ profiles due to the platforms’ privacy policies. Over 1,200 petitions were filed with the Guardian General and Director of Inheritance Affairs, seeking access to loved ones’ accounts, some of which contained images and videos documenting the victims’ final moments.
Some social media platforms responded quickly. On the day the law took effect, Meta prompted users across its platforms to designate posthumous content access settings, offering either full profile deletion or limited access to a designated “memorial contact.” TikTok, however, made no changes to its current policy.
Click here to read the full text of the law (in Hebrew).
