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Authentication of Social Media Evidence

By Richard Raysman and Peter Brown
November 28, 2011

More than 250 million photos are uploaded per day on Facebook, and in all, billions of links, blog posts and other content are shared among users each month. With the staggering amount of electronic communications exchanged on social networks, lawyers quickly realized that these portals were a valuable repository of potential evidence ' snapshots of the past and present ' that could be used for impeachment purposes against parties and witnesses.

However, given the possibility of impersonation and digital fabrication in the online world, the information displayed on social media profiles is not immediately verifiable and presents issues of authentication and admissibility under the Federal Rules of Evidence. In the judicial context, printouts of messages, postings and photographs from a particular social media account generally require additional corroboration that links the printouts to their purported creator before a court will allow such material into evidence.

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