Extract from Helen Geib’s article “Overcoming Social Media eDiscovery Challenges Part 2: Collection”
The first post in this three part series on practical issues in social media eDiscovery covered challenges in identification and preservation. This entry looks at collection challenges created by the distinctive interactive nature of social media.
One of the striking features of social media is the many different data types found in one account or even one post. A single Facebook post might include:
- Original post made by the account holder or a “friend”
- Embedded graphics and videos
- Likes, comments and shares
- Links to other content on Facebook
- Links to content on competing social media sites or third-party websites
- Metadata (e.g., timestamps showing when content was added)
In short, social media content is dissimilar, complex and stored in multiple locations. This diversity of content creates technical hurdles to collection.
