Web and social media evidence for litigation and disclosure: Answer a notice to prove with a check, not an argument.
Defamatory posts, misleading statements, website terms that quietly changed. When the other side serves a notice to prove, a screenshot leaves you arguing about a picture. A Shorenet capture lets their expert test the record itself: what the site delivered, sealed, with a witness your client doesn’t control.
Exhibit 09 · sealed
Message thread, 14 messages
Chat with @seller.example
Yes, the goods were delivered on 3 June.
- Captured 11 June 2026, 10:18 UTC
- SHA-256
93f5f982…4cce41e6 - Timestamped by DigiCert (RFC 3161)
- Witnessed by the Shorenet relay
Verified · independently witnessed
Authenticity is increasingly contested
CPR 32.19
A disclosed document is taken as authentic unless the other side serves a notice to prove it. Once they do, the burden is on the party relying on it.
Source: LexisNexis1 year
The usual limitation period for defamation in England and Wales. Posts are often deleted long before a claim is issued, so the capture has to be right first time.
Source: Farrer & CoCase dismissed
A US court threw out a claim in 2025 after finding the claimant had submitted deepfake video evidence. Courts are now alert to fabricated exhibits, and so is opposing counsel.
Source: Mendones v Cushman & Wakefield, 2025Screenshots and archives rest on trust
A screenshot shows what a screen displayed, and can be fabricated in under a minute. A web archive (WARC) or capture service records what its own software wrote down, with nothing inside it that shows the content came from the real server. Both are fine until someone challenges them. Then the argument becomes one about who to believe.
Shorenet turns that argument into a check. The capture is witnessed in transit by our relay, which is independent of whoever captured it, and then sealed, so the other side’s expert can verify it themselves. See the full comparison.
Where it fits
- Defamation and online harms. Posts, comments and profiles, captured before they are edited or deleted.
- Commercial disputes and misrepresentation. What a company’s website, terms or pricing said when the contract was made.
- Intellectual property. Infringing listings, copycat sites and passing off, captured as they were served.
- Family and employment. Social media posts and public online conduct, in cases where screenshots are routinely challenged.
- Disclosure. Web and social content preserved in a form the other side can test, rather than as screenshots.
Social media evidence in UK courts, and how to preserve it. Can a forensic examiner prove what a website sent?
What it does not do
- It does not prove the content is true. It proves the website sent it. Whether a statement is defamatory or accurate is still for the court.
- It does not identify who ran an account. It proves what the site showed the account as publishing, not who was operating it.
- It cannot capture the past. Content deleted before you capture it cannot be recovered or witnessed.
- We operate the relay. It is independent of your client and your firm, not of us, and an opposing expert should weigh that. What trusting our relay means.
Preserve it before it changes.
Before general release, we want litigators, eDiscovery teams and expert witnesses to test the method, and tell us where it would fail under cross-examination.