MISMANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL DEAD BODY: EXPLORATION OF LEGAL ISSUES TO ADDRESS ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION

Recent controversies concerning the digital remnants of the deceased and the ongoing debate for symbolic immortality that modern technology pose has already stimulated substantial concern for human rights researchers around the world. The political economy of people’s digital remnants and the human rights challenges arisen from this issue has given sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists fascinating chances to research more about changing attitudes towards death and dignified management of people’s digital dead bodies. The author has attempted to focus that people now expand, extend and eventually transform their lives on the internet and other web-based platforms. It has also been pointed out that people’s information is now re-created and linked in different manners after their deaths and they are utilised for commercial purposes. This research has questioned and compared the traditional concept of death with the emerging concept of digital death. Based on the existing research and available literature, the analysis has also been connected with the current legal framework that ensures dignified dead body management in wars and disasters according to the human rights law and international humanitarian law. The administration of digital identity after death, with thousands of ghost-accounts emerging each day, is becoming a significant problem for the global technology industry and a potential opportunity for technology-oriented criminals. This paper has been written with an attempt to objectively conceptualise the dignified management of the digital dead body and the current contradictions. It also focuses on human rights and points out the immediate necessity of introducing new laws on this issue. The significant areas of digital dead body management have also been covered where regulatory tensions might emerge in the light of digitalisation.