These five steps should be sufficient to authenticate social media and website content in any matter.

1. Rule 901(b)(1): Evidence from someone with personal knowledge. As the title of the rule suggests, the first step to authenticating something from the Internet or social media is simply to ask a witness—the purported author or someone else who was there when the item was created—if it is authentic. In a civil case, this usually is the owner of a page.

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