Social media is becoming more popular and in turn is being introduced more often in discovery. In response, the Sedona Conference updated its guide on social media, emphasizing relevance and proportionality when evaluating what communications to consider in discovery.

Counsel often battle over relevance, proportionality and burden, the Sedona Conference noted in the recently updated “The Sedona Conference Primer on Social Media.”

When assessing social media evidence, the guidance suggested evaluating which social media platform is likely to contain relevant information, what information is likely to be relevant and who possesses the social media data. What's more, deciding the date range of discoverable content and the reasonable preservation and production formats are key factors to consider when looking to avoid headaches during the discovery process.