Bot or Not? Authenticating Social Media Evidence at Trial in the Age of Internet Fakery

Social media has the potential to offer a more valuable trove of courtroom evidence than ever before. But what should today’s trial lawyers know about how to authenticate that evidence in an age where manipulation, misinformation, and outright forgery are rampant in the digital world?

While the evidentiary rules around authenticating evidence may be familiar to many, special considerations arise when it comes to relying on evidence from social media platforms and related Internet sources, particularly as these platforms have increasingly become the instruments and targets of manipulation and misinformation. This course will help lawyers understand the challenges of relying on social media evidence, become attuned to the impact of changing technology, and learn strategies for getting such evidence before the trier of fact.

Key topics to be discussed

• Overview of evidentiary rules for authenticating evidence
• How courts apply authentication rules to social media
• Special considerations for a changing technological landscape
• Strategies for authenticating social media evidence if authorship is disputed.