CAN WHATSAPP MESSAGES BE USED AS EVIDENCE?

With technological developments, the issue of whether social media applications that cover a large part of our lives and correspondence made by mail will be evidence in cases that will be opened as a result of established relationships is of great importance. In particular, images, audio and correspondence data made via Whatsapp are now often presented as evidence in courts.

It should be noted with importance that, regardless of the type of evidence and case, it is imperative that the evidence has been obtained in accordance with the law. Unlawful evidence cannot be taken as a basis for judgment and cannot be used as a means of proof. For this reason, it is of great importance how the correspondence, image and audio data submitted to the case for proof are obtained.

In order for WhatsApp correspondence to be considered evidence obtained in accordance with the law in this sense, the following conditions are specified in the decisions of the Court of Cassation;

The person who wants to present the evidence must be the party of the Whatsapp correspondence in question

Correspondence must be recorded by him personally.

In other words, in a correspondence made via WhatsApp, the owner of the account can use the statements in that correspondence as evidence. In conversations held in a group, the statements of all the people in that group in the correspondence can be used as evidence. In such a case, since the confidentiality of private life will not be violated, as a rule, there will be no unlawful evidence obtained.

Moreover, it is not possible to obtain such correspondence illegally and use it as evidence, and it may also constitute a crime under the Turkish Criminal Code.

For example, you could use it as evidence WhatsApp records between spouses, and between them contrary to the law will save your wife and communications with a third person may not use his recordings as evidence.