Photos, messages obtained from social media can be used as evidence –Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court has ruled that photos and messages from Facebook Messenger or other social media platforms obtained by private individuals are now admissible as evidence in court proceedings.

Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez penned the ruling 24 last November 16, 2021 and publicized on Friday, June 17. The ruling sustained for the conviction of Petitioner Christian C. Cadajas to life imprisonment for the violation of RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act due to coercion of a 14-year old girl into sending photos of her private parts over Facebook Messenger.

The petitioner claimed that a chat thread containing explicit messages to a female minor was presented as evidence before the high tribunal. It was stated that the mother of the minor forced her into opening the petitioner’s Facebook Messenger account in obtaining a copy of the conversation after the female minor had deleted hers.

The petitioner then wished for it to be excluded as evidence since it was obtained in violation of his rights to privacy.

The Court had held his claim due to the right to privacy on the Bill of Rights under the 1987 Constitution, which was intended to protect citizens from government intrusions. However, in the case of Cadajas, the chat thread was not obtained by a police officer nor a State agent but by the mother of the minor, thus voiding the Bill of Rights Section 3’s scope from the case.

The Court ruled that the parent did not violate the petitioner’s right to privacy. By giving the password and access to his Facebook Messenger account to the female minor, the petitioner had lost the reasonable expectation of privacy over the contents of his account to whoever it was given access to and to whoever it may be revealed.

The Supreme Court had also discussed that the restrictions of the Data Privacy Act (DPA) are not applicable due to the fact that the DPA allows the processing of personal information where it relates to the determination of criminal liability of a data subject.