Can Social Media Be Used as Evidence in Court? UAE Legal Perspective

In the UAE, there are strong consequences defined for criminals that uses social media as a threat to harm others. This evidence, such as screenshots, videos and pictures, can be presented against the person in court. These are acceptable forms of evidence in court.

Due to extensive use of TikTok, Instagram, and other social media accounts, there is a high risk of increasing crimes related to social media.

The UAE’s legal framework includes Federal Decree-Law No. 35 of 2022 on Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions, Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022 on Criminal Procedures, and Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Countering Rumours and Cybercrimes. Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2021 also regulates electronic transactions and trust services.

In the UAE, courts have accepted digital evidence as part of court proceedings. The evidence is submitted in the courts, which then goes for verification; once it is declared fine, the court can allow the use of digital evidence as part of the case. The acceptance of the evidence in the court is according to the Federal Decree Law No 46 of 2026. According to this law, it allows users to official submit the evidence of the digital media as part of the case.

Nowadays, evidence generated by digital media is widely used in criminal court proceedings.

According to Law No 38 of 2022, the government has allowed investigators to collect digital evidence in criminal acts and to examine it. Police has to collect the devices and then to collect the data from them, the communication devices and other devices are taken in control to further proceed the case. Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022 regulates the collection and examination of digital evidence during criminal investigations. Public Prosecution has the right to authorize a search or examination of electronic devices/gadgets. Devices can be seized where they are connected to the alleged offence or may help reveal the truth.

WhatsApp messages, emails, Facebook posts, TikTok comments, YouTube videos and other social-media content can be submitted as electronic evidence in all the UAE courts. However, this is not considered as conclusive proof. The court may examine their relevance, completeness, and whether they were obtained lawfully or not. Federal Decree-Law No. 35 of 2022 recognizes emails, electronic media and other electronic records as forms of electronic evidence.

Digital Evidence is not automatically accepted just because of the reason that this is grabbed from digital mediums. Court always evaluates its admissibility. A complete verification process is performed before its acceptance (when required). The major considerations are as follows:

1. Relevance: The evidence should relate directly to the facts.

1. Integrity: The evidence should not have been edited, or presented in a misleading form.
2. Understandable Format: Electronic evidence must be capable of being accepted.
3. Lawful Collection: Evidence should not be obtained through hacking, or unauthorized account access. Law does not allow breaching the legal boundaries while collecting the evidence.
4. Meaningful: Evidence must be meaningful. Any useless or baseless evidence is not entertained by court. It also weakness our reputation in court.

For the content to be submitted for the official use, the courts must verify that the content is original and is not changed or altered. For the verification, it is required to have the experts that can deal with the reports and the technical verifications. Proofs and the evidence must also proof that the evidence belongs to that specific person.

For the validation of the evidence, forensic department plays an important role in making sure that the evidence are presentable in the courts.

The assistance of the legal experts. This assistance of legal experts make sure that the evidence are not manipulated and not fabricated. The professional legal experts are very helpful while assessing the critical situations and checking the digital evidence.

There are several cases in Court like Civil Cases, Criminal Cases or Family cases where the disputes and other public and personal matters are usually solved based on the social media posts availability. These posts are worked as, evidence against the individuals or businesses.

Screenshots are often considered as the prime source of the evidence but for that it needs to tested forensically and has to be presented in the courts.

Screenshots can be edited or modified based on the requirement but it can be presented in the courts once its authenticity is proved. The authenticity is one of the major factor why it has to be proved as authentic. If there is any doubt in the authenticity, in courts it can be challenged.

If any evidence or the proof is collected illegally and presented in the courts can be considered as the wrong and it authenticity may be challenged. It is required by the person to make sure the all the evidence that collected should be legal and the consent must be asked. Digital evidence should be obtained and preserved lawfully.

There are case where the legal evidence  are often modified or even deleted, the person may consider it that it can save them from the legal cases.

There are forensic tools that help in the data recovery process which is duly approved by the courts and other law enforcing agencies. It is a work of highly trained IT professionals.

There are cases where getting assistance from the legal becomes necessary.

Digital forensic experts often assist in recovering the digital evidence such as deleted messages or pictures, the legal team often assist in presenting those screenshots or relevant evidence  in the courts.