Make a contemporaneous, chronological record before a post disappears. For each incident, preserve the original message or file, capture an uncropped screenshot or screen recording showing the account and URL, write down the exact words and timestamp with timezone, and keep the files on the source device plus two controlled backups. Report immediate danger first; you do not have to finish collecting screenshots before contacting emergency services or police.
What to capture for every incident
A useful record lets another person identify the content, see its context, and understand when and how you obtained it. Create one entry per post, message, call, email, image, video, or profile change.
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| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Platform | Service name, app or website, and the feature used (direct message, comment, group, profile, email, forum, and so on). |
| Account identity | Display name, handle, user ID, profile URL, and any account number shown by the service. Record aliases separately. |
| Location of content | Copy the complete URL, including any post, message, or media identifier. If there is no permanent URL, describe the navigation path. |
| Time | Write the date and exact time shown by the service, your local time, and the time zone or UTC offset. Add the time you captured the evidence. |
| Words and context | Transcribe the wording exactly, preserving spelling, punctuation, emojis, slurs, and threats. Note the messages immediately before and after it, audience, replies, and whether the account was public or private. |
| Attachments | List photographs, videos, audio, documents, links, and filenames. Save the original file separately from screenshots. |
| Your response | Record whether you replied, blocked, reported, sought medical help, contacted a witness, or took another safety step. Include report numbers and confirmation emails. |
| Witnesses | Names and contact details of people who saw the material or can explain the circumstances, subject to their privacy and consent. |
Police Scotland and StopBullying.gov advise saving or printing screenshots and recording the platform, sender, wording, and timing. Guidance from Japan’s National Police Agency likewise identifies the site name, URL, author, posting date and time, and content as core details. These fields make your record understandable even if the service later changes its interface.
Safety comes before evidence collection
Threats of immediate violence
If someone may harm you or another person now, leave the situation if possible and use your jurisdiction’s emergency number. Tell the dispatcher that the threat was made online and give the account name, URL, location information, and any weapon, time, or place mentioned. Police.uk states that you do not have to gather screenshots, text messages, videos, or photos before reporting; police may be able to recover material that is no longer visible.
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Do not increase your risk
- Do not meet the sender, bargain over a threat, or announce that you are collecting evidence.
- Use a safe device and account if the harasser may have access to your phone, email, or cloud storage.
- Ask a trusted person to help preserve files if viewing the material is distressing.
- Do not forward intimate images involving anyone who may be under 18. Police.uk warns that taking or sharing such material can itself be a criminal offence. Tell police that such material exists and follow their instructions instead.
Capture the material before reporting or blocking
Take a complete screenshot
- Open the original post or message, not only a notification preview.
- Scroll so the capture includes the platform identity, account handle, profile link or user ID, full wording, visible date or time, and surrounding replies or context.
- Capture more than one image when the content cannot fit on screen. Keep the sequence in order.
- Save the file in the device’s original format. Do not crop, draw on, resize, or add a timestamp to the master file.
- Make a working copy for annotations and notes; keep the master untouched.
A screen recording can show how you reached a message, a disappearing-story interface, or a page that loads dynamically. Start with the device clock or a written slate, navigate to the account and URL, open the content, and stop only after the complete context is visible. Keep the original recording and note the device, operating system, browser or app version, and capture time.
Preserve exports and emails
Download the platform’s data export when available, but do not treat it as a replacement for the live page. Save original video, audio, image, and document files in their native formats. For email, retain the message and download or print a readable copy with full headers; College of Policing guidance recommends preserving full headers and not deleting the originals. Headers can show routing and message identifiers that a screenshot omits.
Print a readable copy
Print the page or export it to PDF after saving the original files. A PDF is easier for a lawyer, investigator, or court to review, while the untouched screenshot, recording, export, or email remains the source. Note whether the printout came from a browser, app, or platform export.
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Use a spreadsheet or paper diary with one row per incident. Write promptly, in your own words, and distinguish what you personally saw from what another person told you.
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| Date and time (with zone) | Source and account | Exact content | Files and context | Action and reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-16 21:14 UTC+1; captured 21:18 | Platform; handle; user ID; complete URL | Verbatim text, including punctuation and emojis | Screenshot filenames, original video or audio, preceding replies, witnesses | Platform report number, police reference, blocking time, later edits or deletion |
Keep a separate diary for effects and follow-up: missed work, medical treatment, contact with a school or employer, and each interaction with investigators or a platform. Do not silently overwrite an earlier entry when a post changes. Add a new entry describing the change and preserve the earlier copy.
Preserve deleted, edited, or disappearing posts
Deletion does not make a threat irrelevant. Keep every screenshot, notification email, repost, quote, cached copy, URL, and witness statement. Record when you first saw the material and when it disappeared. Ask witnesses to preserve their own originals rather than sending you a compressed or annotated copy.
Report both the original threat and the deletion to police, a regulator, or your lawyer. Police.uk advises reporting unavailable media because investigators may be able to recover it. Singapore’s Online Safety Commission warns that reporting can lead to removal, so save evidence before reporting when it is safe to do so.
Request provider preservation through investigators or counsel
Ask police or your lawyer to send a preservation request to the service promptly. In the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), in the 2024 U.S. Code edition, requires a provider that receives a governmental request to preserve records and other evidence pending legal process for 90 days; the period can be renewed once for another 90 days. This is a preservation measure, not an automatic disclosure order, and the procedure and time limits differ outside the United States.
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Keep originals secure and prove their handling
- Leave the source device and original files intact. Avoid factory resets, app clean-ups, or editing the only copy.
- Create a dedicated evidence folder with read-only or restricted permissions where practical. Use clear filenames such as
2026-10-16T2114+0100_platform_handle_post123_master.png. - Store one copy on a dedicated USB drive or other controlled storage and a second backup in a separate location. PPSNI identifies cloud storage or a USB drive as options; Victoria Police advises secure storage of screenshots, emails, and chat logs before reporting.
- Protect backups with a strong passphrase and encryption where available. Limit access to people who need it.
- Keep a handling log: filename, hash if your legal adviser requests one, who copied it, date and time, storage location, and every person who received a copy.
- When sending files, use a method that preserves the original bytes. Keep the sent copy and the transfer confirmation.
Do not publish the evidence publicly to prove your story. Public reposting can expose private information, alert a harasser, or create separate privacy and defamation issues.
Prepare a handoff packet
Give an investigator or lawyer a packet that can be checked without searching through your phone.
- An index mapping each incident number to filenames, URLs, and pages in any PDF or printout.
- The chronological timeline and a separate diary of impact and follow-up.
- Untouched screenshots, recordings, exports, emails with full headers, and original media.
- Readable PDFs or printouts for quick review.
- Account identifiers, platform report confirmations, police reference numbers, and preservation requests.
- A short statement for each item explaining when and how you obtained it, what device or account you used, and whether it is a direct copy or a witness-provided file.
- A copy-transfer log showing who received each item and when.
Use a screenshot API for public pages (optional)
Automation can create consistent captures of a public URL, but it does not replace the original message, platform export, email headers, or a proper handling log. Check that automated access is lawful and that the page is publicly viewable; do not put private credentials or intimate material into a third-party service without professional advice.
Or skip the browser setup:
ScreenshotNeo can capture a URL with one request. Before the capture it accepts cookie or consent banners and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; each cleanup step can be turned off. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and the response identifies the result with X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Treat the resulting image as an additional copy: retain the source URL, capture time, API response headers, and your original files.
See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for parameters. The following examples use a public URL placeholder; replace it with the exact page you are documenting.
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com/public-post -o shot.webpPython
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://example.com/public-post"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://example.com/public-post' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);ScreenshotNeo supports full-page captures with lazy images loaded, element selection by CSS selector, dark mode, device presets and custom viewports, retina scale, PDF output with paper size, margins, landscape and page ranges, custom CSS or JavaScript, clicks before capture, selector hiding, waits for a selector, delay or network idle, request and resource blocking, custom headers, cookies, user agent and Authorization, timezone and geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, a chosen cache TTL, signed links, asynchronous jobs with signed webhooks, bulk capture of up to 100 URLs per call, a usage API, and an OpenAPI specification. Parameter names used by other screenshot APIs also work, which can simplify migration.
For evidence work, record the exact options, URL, API response headers, and capture time. Use a short or disabled cache TTL when you need a fresh page, and keep a browser or platform capture as corroboration if the page is dynamic. An MCP server provides take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf tools for Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients, allowing an AI agent to perform the capture while you preserve its output and audit trail.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Troubleshooting common evidence problems
The screenshot cuts off the account or timestamp
Capture the profile header and post separately, zoom out only enough to keep text readable, or use a full-page capture. Add a written note linking the files in sequence. Never crop the only master copy.
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The app shows a notification but the message is gone
Save the notification, its email, the sender details, and the URL immediately. Ask witnesses for their untouched copies and report the unavailable material; investigators may be able to obtain provider records.
The page changes between captures
Record each version as a new incident, with its own capture time. Save replies and edits separately and explain the difference in the timeline instead of replacing an earlier file.
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Keep the export and document what it omits. Supplement it with screenshots, screen recordings, full-header emails, and a preservation request. Do not alter the export to make it appear complete.
An automated capture returns a blank page, timeout, or bot check
Retry from a normal browser, save the error and timestamp, and report the URL to investigators. ScreenshotNeo identifies blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and bot checks in its response and does not bill those outcomes, but an automated failure is not proof that the content never existed.
You are unsure whether recording is lawful
Rules on recording conversations, private communications, authentication, hearsay, privacy, and preservation vary by jurisdiction. Ask a local lawyer or victim-support service before recording audio or accessing another person’s account. Preserve what you can lawfully obtain and disclose how it was obtained.
What this record can and cannot establish
A well-kept record helps a lawyer, police officer, platform, or court identify the speaker, content, timing, and continuity of events. It does not guarantee admissibility. A court may require authentication, a witness with personal knowledge, provider records, or testimony about how a file was stored. Hearsay, privacy, recording-consent, and chain-of-custody rules differ by jurisdiction. Give investigators the originals and your handling log so they can decide what additional process is needed.
Use the same discipline for every incident: act safely, capture before deletion, preserve originals, record a precise timeline, back up securely, report promptly, and request provider preservation through the appropriate authority.
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