Tweet Admissibility

The New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed a simple assault conviction of a defendant alleged to have hit her ex-boyfriend’s successor girlfriend with a shoe.

[Girlfriend] Edwards and [ex-boyfriend] Blake went to the police station to report the incident and then went to the hospital, where Edwards received nine stitches. After the assault, defendant and Edwards had communications “back and forth” on Twitter. On December 28, 2012, Edwards saw defendant posted a tweet saying “shoe to ya face bitch.”

The court affirmed its standards for authenticating tweets

The municipal court and the Law Division each admitted as Exhibit S-4 the following tweet allegedly posted by defendant on December 28, 2012: “No need for me to keep responding to ya stupid unhappy fake mole having ass.. how u cring2 in a corner with a shoe to ya face bitch.” The tweet displayed defendant’s profile photo and defendant’s Twitter handle, “@cirocgirl25.”

Edwards testified she recognized the tweet as being written by defendant because it displayed defendant’s picture. She also was familiar with defendant’s Twitter handle, “@cirocgirl25.” Moreover, Edwards testified the tweet was posted “in response to things that [Edwards] was saying” and they were communicating “back and forth.” On December 28, 2012, Edwards went onto defendant’s Twitter page, saw the posted tweet, and captured it as a screenshot.

Defendant testified the Twitter page displayed a picture of her and her Twitter handle. However, she testified she did not author the tweet.

The court considered the varying approaches to tweet admissibility adopted in Texas and Maryland and came out with a “low burden” threshold 

We need not create a new test for social media postings. Defendant argues a tweet can be easily forged, but so can a letter or any other kind of writing. The simple fact that a tweet is created on the Internet does not set it apart from other writings. Accordingly, we apply our traditional rules of authentication under N.J.R.E. 901…

Defendant’s Twitter handle, her profile photo, the content of the tweet, its nature as a reply, and the testimony presented at trial was sufficient to meet the low burden imposed by our authentication rules…

 The Law Division, like the municipal court, provided sufficient reasons for finding the tweet authentic, relevant, and admissible. Defendant’s remaining arguments regarding authentication lack sufficient merit to warrant discussion. R. 2:11-3(e)(2). Accordingly, we find no abuse of discretion in admitting the tweet.

 (Mike Frisch)