The quality of social media posts to be legal evidence in divorce cases

Nowadays, people make many situations they experience public by sharing them on their social media accounts on various social networking sites. They can also use these social media accounts as a means of communication with other people. These social media posts can be submitted to the court as evidence in order to prove their claims and defenses by the parties of divorce cases. It has brought along legal debates about whether the social media posts, which are increasingly presented to the divorce case files by the parties, can be a legal evidence that can be used to convince the judge about the accuracy of the claims and defenses. It has also taken its place as a controversial issue whether the actions carried out by sharing social media will be considered as a faulty behavior on behalf of the spouses who are parties to the divorce case. In the study, the concepts of social media, social networking site and divorce were discussed in general and how the actions taken by spouses on social media were reflected in divorce cases, the reasons for divorce in the Turkish Civil Code and whether the actions taken by spouses on social media were effective on the reasons for divorce. It will be explained whether the social media posts submitted by the spouses in the divorce cases are considered as legal evidence by the courts dealing with the divorce case. Keywords: Social Media, Divorce, Divorce Cases, Evidence in Divorce Cases, Legal Evidence, Social Media Posts