When Acquittal Is Just a Tweet Away: Obtaining Historical Social Media Evidence From Service Provide

Social media websites can provide a digital goldmine of potential evidence, such as group memberships, tweets, and photos. Even if defense counsel can view postings, however, the viewable material is often limited to recent content. As a result, defense counsel may need to subpoena missing information under Fed. Rule Crim. P. 17(c). An obstacle to such subpoenas is the Stored Communications Act, a shield that service providers rely on to refuse compliance. What potential legal arguments are available to the defense to help fight for the production of social media evidence?