Online technologies enable vast amounts of data to outlive their producers online, thereby giving rise to a new, digital form of afterlife presence. Although researchers have begun investigating the nature of such presence, academic literature has until now failed to acknowledge the role of commercial interests in shaping it. The goal of this paper is to analyse what those interests are and what ethical consequences they may have. This goal is pursued in three steps. First, we introduce the concept of the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI), and define it as an object of study. Second, we identify the politico-economic interests of the DAI. For this purpose, we develop an analytical approach based on an informational interpretation of Marxian economics. Third, we explain the practical manifestations of the interests using four real life cases. The findings expose the incentives of the DAI to alter what is referred to as the ''informational bodies'' of the dead, which in turn is to be seen as a violation of the principle of human dignity. To prevent such consequences, we argue that the ethical conventions that guide trade with remains of organic bodies may serve as a good model for future regulation of DAI.

The web is increasingly inhabited by the remains of its departed users, a phenomenon that has given rise to a burgeoning digital afterlife industry. This industry requires a framework for dealing with its ethical implications. We argue that the regulatory conventions guiding archaeological exhibitions could provide the basis for such a framework. The number of "dead" profiles on Facebook has been estimated to increase at a rate of roughly 1.7 million per year, only in the US 1. Depending on the future rate of growth in Facebook users, the dead may even outnumber the living before the end of the century. Meanwhile, technological development has enhanced how we "socialise" with the dead online. Firms such as Eterni.me and Replica now offer consumers online chat bots, based on one's digital footprint, which continue to live on after users die, enabling the bereaved to "stay in touch" with the deceased. This new phenomenon has opened up opportunities for commercial enterprises to monetise the digital afterlife of Internet users. As a consequence the economic interests of these firms are increasingly shaping the presence of the online dead. 2 The sociological and legally oriented literature has mainly focused on social practices of grief on social media. This debate has largely focused on the role of technological development in shaping modern practices of online grieving, and has, with few exceptions 3 , left the economic and ethical aspects of the phenomenon mostly unexplored. The fact that the online dead are generally mediated by commercial platforms therefore tends to be neglected. This is problematic, considering the recent growth in the industry. There is a plethora of startups now investing in death online, and tech giants are also beginning to join the trend. Facebook, with its two billion (living) users, has made significant advances in supporting users who wish to mourn and stay in touch with the profiles of the departed. Likewise, Google has recently launched an "inactive account manager" to deal with the inevitable deaths of its users, thereby following in the footsteps of numerous digital afterlife start-ups. Although they differ in their respective business models, these enterprises may all be placed under the same umbrella term, the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI) 2. Digital remains as estate Digital remains as preserved memory Digital remains as communication Digital remains as artificial agent Information Management Services Online Memorial Services Posthumous Messaging Services Recreation Services

We project the future accumulation of profiles belonging to deceased Facebook users. Our analysis suggests that a minimum of 1.4 billion users will pass away before 2100 if Facebook ceases to attract new users as of 2018. If the network continues expanding at current rates, however, this number will exceed 4.9 billion. In both cases, a majority of the profiles will belong to non-Western users. In discussing our findings, we draw on the emerging scholarship on digital preservation and stress the challenges arising from curating the profiles of the deceased. We argue that an exclusively commercial approach to data preservation poses important ethical and political risks that demand urgent consideration. We call for a scalable, sustainable, and dignified curation model that incorporates the interests of multiple stakeholders.

Recent technological innovation has made video doctoring increasingly accessible. This has given rise to Deepfake Pornography, an emerging phenomenon in which Deep Learning algorithms are used to superimpose a person's face onto a pornographic video. Although to most people, Deepfake Pornography is intuitively unethical, it seems difficult to justify this intuition without simultaneously condemning other actions that we do not ordinarily find morally objectionable, such as sexual fantasies. In the present article, I refer to this contradiction as the pervert's dilemma. I propose that the method of Levels of Abstraction, a philosophical mode of enquiry inspired by Formal Methods in computer science, can be employed to formulate at least one possible solution to the dilemma. From this perspective, the permissibility of some actions appears to depend on the degree to which they are abstracted from their natural context. I conclude that the dilemma can only be solved when considered at low levels of abstractions, when Deepfakes are situated in the macro-context of gender inequality.

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