Journal
COMPUTER LAW & SECURITY REVIEW
Volume 51, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
DOI: 10.1016/j.clsr.2023.105886
Keywords
Social media; Social media evidence; Digital evidence; Digital forensics
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Despite the challenges, social media evidence is considered valuable in Polish courtrooms. However, issues regarding the presentation and acceptance of this evidence, as well as the lack of legal regulations for accessing and gathering social media evidence, need to be addressed.
Despite its potential evidentiary value, presenting information from social media in the courtroom poses practical challenges. Various legal, ethical, and forensic issues tied to social media evidence have international relevance, as judicial authorities globally navigate the same technological landscape. This article presents the results of an exploratory cross-sectional questionnaire survey conducted among active civil litigation and criminal defense lawyers in Poland (n = 278) in January 2021. The results confirm that social media content is present in Polish courtrooms and perceived by practitioners as potentially valuable evidence in all types of civil and criminal court cases. A content analysis of the comments from the study's participants revealed four key themes concerning their perception of social media evidence: (a) a lack of knowledge on how to properly present such content, (b) judges' reluctance towards accepting this type of evidence, (c) a problematic absence of legal regulations for accessing and gathering social media evidence, and (d) the presence of a significant amount of legally relevant information in social media content. To better manage social media evidence, there is a need for clear, understandable guidelines for lawyers and judicial authorities, in addition to the development of forensically sound methods of handling this type of evidence.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available