How Your Social Media Activity Can Impact Your Criminal Case

Many people use their social media platforms to vent, boast, share family news, and connect with friends old and new. Some use their posts to incite reactions or encourage conversation. For the most part, your posts have little impact outside of your personal circle of followers unless, that is, you are facing criminal charges. Under these circumstances, your social media posts could potentially have devastating implications.

Social media activity may be used as evidence in criminal investigations. Depending on the subject matter, they can be used to directly implicate someone in the commission of a crime or, at the very least, damage their credibility.

Law enforcement agencies can use public posts, as well as private posts with the proper warrants, as evidence in their criminal investigation. This includes status updates, photos, and videos. Even posts by other individuals in which the accused is tagged can be used as evidence. Remember, once something is on the internet, it is there forever. This means deleted posts can be recovered and, if relevant, used against you in a criminal case.

Social media posts that contradict statements made in court can be used by the prosecution to challenge the credibility of suspects and witnesses, refute alibis, and even help establish a motive for the crime for which the suspect is being charged. On the other hand, defense attorneys may be able to use posts that corroborate court statements to verify alibis.

Another area of concern are posts that intimidate witnesses, either by means of direct threats or harassment. Such posts can have an impact on the accused’s chances of being offered an opportunity to favorably resolve their case via plea bargaining or on their sentencing if convicted.

It isn’t the wording of posts alone that can have an impact; the meta data is also revealing. Location data is embedded in all social media posts and tells where a person was when they posted. This information can be used to discredit an alibi or put the accused at the scene, thus implicating him or her in the commission of the crime as charged.

There are guidelines for how social media activity can be used in a criminal case. For posts to be admissible in court, they must be relevant to the actual case and have been legally obtained and preserved according to the rules of evidence. Also, since the use of personal social media activity at trial raises concerns over privacy issues, all legal boundaries must be observed.

If you are facing criminal charges, your defense attorney can advise you on what may and may not be safe to post. Your attorney can also challenge any evidence, including your social media activity, that has been improperly obtained.