When you receive an insult or a threat, when you experience online harassment, the first reflex is often to delete everything, to make the violence disappear. It is human, it is understandable. But be careful: in the digital world, deleting without keeping a trace means erasing the murder weapon. It is not “just the internet”, it is a real attack, which leaves traces that need to be protected.
Why keep the evidence? For your credibility: the abuser can edit or delete his messages, but your screenshot stays. To enable identification: a username can change, but a URL or an account ID makes it possible to trace back to the source. To build a file: one piece of evidence says little, a set of evidence says everything.
In practice, before blocking, capture the full messages with the author’s name, date and time, copy the profile URL, show the history of exchanges to prove repetition, and note how you felt in a log. Blocking the abuser is essential for your mental health, keeping the evidence is essential for your justice. Both together means taking back power. Documenting means no longer suffering in silence.
