Preserving Platform Evidence
A practical practical checklist for preserving online material before it changes, disappears, or loses context.
Preserve the original context
Save the original URL, account or channel name, visible date/time, surrounding conversation, and the content itself. A cropped screenshot can lose the context needed to interpret it later.
Keep provider history
Retain complaint confirmations, case numbers, acknowledgements, enforcement notices, appeals, and support responses. Platform action proves a platform action, not necessarily the underlying legal allegation.
Separate speaker from subject
Record who actually posted, sent, reposted, quoted, or replied. Do not silently upgrade a third-party comment into something another person said.
Document change
If content changes or disappears, record the later state separately. Do not overwrite the earlier capture or infer intent from deletion alone.
Build an inventory
Give important items stable labels and connect them to chronology entries so later reviewers do not have to rediscover the archive.