Using Social Media Posts in Criminal Trials: What Prosecutors Look For

When it comes to social media evidence in criminal cases, it pays to curtail your digital presence. Instagram, X, and TikTok posts can end up causing legal harm because law enforcement officials are cognizant of how people share intimate details online, which is why they often check online for posts. Even if your chats don’t directly demonstrate criminal conduct, they can be used to construct timelines or to disprove your story.

Should you worry about prosecutors scanning through your private posts? Will they review each cat meme or birthday photo? Researching how social media affects court cases is a necessity. Law enforcement officials can take advantage of your online comments, public posts, and private messages to build their case. Even if a comment or image appeared 100% innocent when you typed it, they can be taken out of context by police.

Additionally, you must remember that social media posts contain hidden data that you don’t normally see. Geotags and metadata can show where you were at when you posted or uploaded an image, which can tie you to illegal activity.

Deleting your photos isn’t adequate enough. Law enforcement can use digital forensics and subpoenas to access deleted data. Once something is in existence, it can be exceptionally hard to get rid of.

Prosecutors typically use social media posts to illustrate evidence of a crime or where you were physically at during the event. For instance, the geotags may confound your alibi and show you were in the same areas as the crime at the moment it happened.

California allows prosecutors to use any publicly shared information without a warrant. Besides looking at your public data, investigators can ask the court for a subpoena so that they can see all of your deleted posts, private messages, and account details. This type of information may include activity logs, timestamps, and metadata.

In addition to getting a subpoena, police can take it a step further and create a fake account, similar to catfishing. Then, they can use the fake account to chat you up you online, take part in a closed group, or view private, personal content. While this is a controversial part of social media court cases, it is unfortunately a very routine process.

When it comes to social media evidence in criminal cases in Orange County and other areas, your metadata can get you in trouble. Metadata shows your timestamps, device information, geolocation data, and similar information, which can be dangerous in someone else’s hands.

For example, prosecutors will likely download and review the following data.

• Geolocation data
• Timestamps
• Device details

Even if the info doesn’t reveal a crime or damaging alibi information, it can demonstrate a legal term known as implied intent. For example, you may have posted about how much you hated someone or wished you never had to work with them again. When they suddenly disappeared or were found dead, these posts can look a lot like intent.

While social media forensics seems incredibly scientific and accurate, metadata can be tampered with. Your attorney can potentially challenge the evidence by demonstrating that it has been altered or has changed hands many times. They can also challenge whether it was originally made by the defendant.

Similarly, a talented attorney can highlight important technical errors. If there is missing data, time zone issues, or an incorrect timestamp, it shows that there may be problems with the metadata or device. Because of this, the entire data cannot be accepted at its face value.

When it comes to social media evidence in criminal cases, exercise caution. A post doesn’t have to be publically available for law enforcement to see it and twist it to their advantage. To protect your rights, reach out to talk with our legal experts today.