Social media is extremely popular today, and if you are like most people, you post regularly. While you may realize it is necessary to remain silent when you are arrested to avoid incriminating yourself, you may not realize that anything on your social media may be used against you in court.
If the court can effectively authenticate your posts, then anything related to drugs can be used against you.
How courts authenticate social media posts
If prosecutors plan to use social media evidence, they must prove the posts are yours. The easiest way for them to do this is to get you to admit the post or posts are yours. However, if that is not possible, they can use circumstantial evidence.
This means that the prosecutor may call on a witness who knows how you talk, your social media post and who can vouch that you made the post. If the post in question “sounds” like something you would post and come from an account that has your name on it, it may be used as evidence against you.
Preventing incriminating social media evidence
A good first step in preventing the prosecution from using your social media posts against you is to set your accounts to private. Make sure only your friends can see your pictures and posts. Remember, if you have people on social media with access to your posts, they can provide this information to the court to be used against you. Never talk about drugs (in any way) on social media.
Protecting yourself when facing drug charges
If you are facing drug charges, don’t forget that your social media presence may be used against you. It is smart to know your legal rights in these instances so you can protect yourself.