Courts to Accept WeChat Posts as Evidence in Criminal Cases

(Beijing) – Courts will be allowed to accept information culled from suspects' social media postings as evidence in criminal cases as of Oct. 1, according to a broader definition of digital evidence issued on Wednesday.

Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Court and the top prosecutor's office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, also allow police to sift through suspects' social media archives on platforms such as WeChat after obtaining a court order.