So much good has come from the dominance of social media in our lives: we remain connected with friends and family, we have more ways to access news, and we get involved with important matters. At the same time, quite a bit of bad can come from social media. Sometimes, this bad comes from our decision to post a status update or photos, ones that we do not initially think to be something that can be used against us.
For instance:
You are suspected of shooting someone. The police go back on your Instagram and find a photo, posted quite some time ago, of you with the same gun that was used in the crime. That’s incriminating evidence.
You post a photo of your initials carved into a tree. This tree is in a national park and you forgot that defacing nature in national parks is a crime. You post the photo, and now you are being fined.
You make a joke and post a status update saying you will be hurting someone at work tomorrow. Next thing you know, the police are there and they do not find your joke funny.
A bunch of your friends have posted a really awesome scenic photo. You do the same, finally, but you get caught doing it because in order to get that specific angle, you have to trespass onto private property.
There are plenty of instances of social media leading to someone’s arrest and police and investigators are relying on social media more and more these days to get what they need.
