Screenshots of text messages are easy to fake
Text message screenshots are unreliable as legal evidence. Easily faked even before generative AI.
Text message screenshots are unreliable as legal evidence. Easily faked even before generative AI.
A screenshot is merely a picture of pixels, lacking the verifiable data found in a smartphone's internal database, which holds critical forensic artifacts.
Carrier records and cloud backups offer limited authentication, often missing content or being incomplete.
With AI now making fakes virtually indistinguishable, legal professionals must shift from trusting visual evidence to demanding direct forensic examination of the device itself.
This is vital to ensure authenticity and prevent miscarriages of justice.
For my full story at Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2026/07/15/message-screenshots-are-terrible-evidence-courts-accept-them-anyway/
