Internet privacy is an ever-growing issue in 2019. Far too often, someone’s “private social media account”, specifically what they post on it, ends up costing them everything in court. For example, a photo of a spouse partying with a drink in their hand after they told the judge that they would stop drinking, in the hands of the opposing party’s attorney, can be devastating to your case. It makes you seem less credible with the court, and can even be an influential factor in a custody battle.

The wisest decision would be to remove oneself from social media altogether, or at the very least use it infrequently. What you post on the internet is admissible as evidence, and with that in mind, why put any evidence online at all?

Attorneys are often scouring the web to monitor online activity, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which both utilize photos and captions, and are prime sources for potentially damaging content. Wild behavior, whether in writing or photographs, can be used to support an accusation that this spouse is an unfit parent, or that their “work trips” were more like “vacations”, and that they used marital funds to pay for it. These are all real-world examples that happen far more often than you may think.

However, this means that in a backward way, social media can be useful to you in your divorce – if your spouse is the one who posts something that damages their chances in court.

When it comes to using and posting on social media common sense and good judgment should be exercised, but even more so during the divorce process, when you will already be scrutinized while trying to show your best side in front of a judge. Alternatively, you can simply disable the account until after the divorce is over since you can’t post if you don’t have an account.