I'm sure time will soonest come in PHL courts where data from FB, Twitter, and the like will be mined and used more and more as evidence as in the case of US courts.
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We’ve all heard about the isolated cases where Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites were used in divorce court. What you may not realize is that it’s happening more and more, and it’s not just in those rare cases anymore. As a matter of fact, depending on which report you read, Facebook is now used in up to 90% of divorce cases in the United States alone.
Richard just wrote an article yesterday about the fact that what we put on Twitter and Facebook can affect whether or not we get that new job, but now our social media updates can affect things much more important than just a job. It can affect things like child support, child custody and the outcome of major financial disputes.
According to this article on The Next Web, the three main reasons why Facebook is divorce attorney heaven is because it can prove that there were inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex, nasty comments that separated spouses posted about each other, and of course pictures and other spouse behavior revealed on Facebook that Facebook friends provide when they decide to get involved in a friend’s divorce.
This isn’t just happening with Facebook and Twitter either. Richard pointed out in his article that Myspace plays a big role in social media background checks, and I read that Myspace also also plays a role in this divorce stuff too (even things that you’ve deleted can be used). I don’t get that. I mean, who the heck hangs out on Myspace anyway? I thought that was pretty much just a site for musicians these days, but I guess I am way wrong about that.
The main point I take from this is that the meat and potatoes of our communication is now officially taking place on our preferred social media sites. I’ve got to give text and email credit though, they stayed on top for a long time, but now it looks like the tables are finally turning and social media trumps them both when it comes to sensitive conversations and communications.
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