Taking Facebook at Face Value: The Refugee Review Tribunal’s Use of Social Media Evidence

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Author(s)
Wagstaff, Emma
Tranter, Kieran
Year published
2014
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This article argues that the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) is placing excessive weight on evidence gathered from social media in reviewing refugee decisions. It will be argued that the RRT is assigning high truth values to information concerning applicants and others from social media. This is despite detailed research that suggests that social media rarely conveys accurate or consistent information about an individual. In taking such evidence at face value the RRT is misunderstanding social media and potentially making errors in its decisions.This article argues that the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) is placing excessive weight on evidence gathered from social media in reviewing refugee decisions. It will be argued that the RRT is assigning high truth values to information concerning applicants and others from social media. This is despite detailed research that suggests that social media rarely conveys accurate or consistent information about an individual. In taking such evidence at face value the RRT is misunderstanding social media and potentially making errors in its decisions.
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Journal Title
Australian Journal of Administrative Law
Volume
21
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Thomson Legal & Regulatory Limited. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Administrative Law
Law