Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 4

provision of services, leveraging the digital world of new technologies and data exchange, creating, consequently, new forms of social and economic representation. In this scenario, computers are referred to as the main mechanism of possibility for the realization of this new world, especially with the advent of the Internet, seen as a new political and revolutionary dimension. According to Loveluck (2018, p. 77-78) interactions by networked computers represent unprecedented forms of sociality, a vision of chosen community, in which one can free oneself from the constraints of one's immediate environment to establish bonds, from a purely voluntary basis, independent of the ordinary structuring constraints of individuals, such as neighborhood, family, religion, and tradition. In this context, unequivocally, it was the installation of computer networks, in a human-machine symbiosis model, that allowed the computer to go beyond the initial state of a mere calculator, to become an information system capable of communication, thus raising the relevance of information - or, more properly, data - to a privileged position in the context of commercial and non-commercial exchanges. (TRICLOT, 2008). Such reflections are affiliated to the notion that the advent of technologies has subverted the order hitherto established in the most varied fields of human knowledge. The logic of scarcity has been replaced by the logic of abundance. There is no longer any doubt: cybernetics, personal computing (microcomputing) and network communication have established new and unsurpassable social, political, cultural, economic and, consequently, also legal paradigms. One need only consult public statistics to have an exact notion of the vertiginous increase in the number of Internet users and social networks over time. According to a report released in January 2022 by digital marketing firms We Are Social, UK, and Hootsuite, USA, on internet consumption and social networking (DIGITAL 2022), the number of users has more than doubled in the last 10 years from 2.18 billion in early 2012 to 4.95 billion in early 2022. This same report (DIGITAL 2022) shows that the number of social media users has grown even faster over the last decade than Internet users. While in 2012 there were 1.48 billion users, that number is now 3.1 times higher, totaling 4.62 billion social media users. A fact that draws attention and deserves to be highlighted is the time spent online. The report points out that the average Internet user spends more than 40% of his or her life in the digital world, considering that a person sleeps on average 7 to 8 hours a day. It is estimated that only in 2022 the world will spend more than 12.5 trillion hours online. In this scenario, Brazilians appear together with South Africans, Filipinos and Colombians as the people who spend more than 10 hours a day online. Speaking specifically about Brazil, according to the 2022 report (DIGITAL 2022), the total number of Internet users is 165.3 million, and the total number of social media users is 171.5 million, which is 79.9% of the total population. Also according to the Digital report the platforms most used by Brazilians are Youtube (138 million), Instagram (119.5 million) and Facebook (116 million). These surveys show the large number of digital traces left by each user, challenging the legal world to deal with this new scenario in an attempt to define the fate of the content available on the network after the user's death, especially in social media, paying attention to the fact that the information available there may have a mixed legal nature. In other words, in the sphere of the information society, the data circulating on network systems may or may not refer to very personal rights, some are of a strictly patrimonial nature, others not. Even so, such content is often clearly relevant to the aspects of intimacy and privacy, and has no intrinsic economic value; however, when inserted into the context of big data collection, it constitutes an important element of the political economy, and is considered an economically measurable asset (LOVELUCK, 2018). This in itself denotes the complexity of the subject in question and its nuances, which cannot and should not be ignored when thinking about an adequate legal treatment to be given to the succession issue of digital assets. Therefore, in an attempt to frame digital data in the existing legal structure, it is essential to revisit some traditional concepts and classifications of civil law, in order to accommodate them adequately, given the specific legislative gap on the subject, which will be seen in the next topic. II. D igital D ata and I nternet R egulation Regarding digital data regulation, it is worth noting that in Brazil the first bills dealing with the transmissibility of the digital contents and files of the author of the inheritance dated back to 2012. Bill no. 4.847/2012 proposed the addition of articles 1.797-A, 1.797-B and 1.797-C to the Civil Code, bringing as guidelines the concept of digital inheritance and the possibility of transmitting this inheritance to legitimate heirs, if the deceased had not left a will. This text also allowed heirs to define the fate of the deceased's social networking accounts. Bill no. 4.099/12, drafted by Representative Jorginho Melo, suggested the addition of a single paragraph to article 1.788 of the Brazilian Civil Code, Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 2 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals A Succession of Digital Rights in Brazil: In Search of Appropriate Legal Treatment