What kind of evidence does SMS belong to?

The types of evidence stipulated in China's Civil Procedure Law include: documentary evidence, material evidence, audio-visual materials, witness testimony, statements of parties, expert conclusions, records of inquests, etc. , including SMS? Article 22 of the Supreme People's Court's "Several Provisions on Evidence in Civil Proceedings": "When investigating and collecting audio-visual materials such as computer data or audio and video recordings, investigators should ask the respondents to provide the original carrier of the relevant materials." Audio-visual materials are forms of evidence that use data stored in images, audio and computers to prove the true situation of a case. From this point of view, it should be understood that mobile phone short messages are audio-visual materials, and they can be used as evidence as long as they meet the evidence attributes and can "prove the true situation of the case". Whether the evidence can be accepted depends on its objectivity, relevance and legitimacy. The objectivity of evidence means that the facts as evidence content exist objectively, that is, the evidence must be true and reliable, not subjective speculation, speculation and fabrication, and the relationship between the facts as evidence content and the facts to be proved in the case also exists objectively. As a new communication method, SMS mainly converts people's meaning into digital signals, which are transmitted to the other party's mobile phone through the signal network, presented on the screen of the other party's mobile phone and recorded on the server of the communication operator. The relevance of evidence means that there must be some objective connection between the fact that evidence is the content of evidence and the facts of the case or other controversial facts that need to be proved. The sending and receiving of short messages is the relationship between the sender and the receiver, and the receiving and sending of short messages is the corresponding relationship. Legitimacy includes four aspects: 1, legal form; 2. The subject providing and collecting evidence is legal; 3. The contents of the evidence must be legal; 4. Evidence must be collected according to legal procedures, and it is illegal to violate legal procedures. The reason why judges use SMS is not only based on the "three characteristics" of the above evidence, but also lies in the scientific knowledge and common sense of life that judges should have. In today's society, mobile phones have become the main communication tool for people's information exchange. The information in the inbox of the mobile phone is a read-only file, which can only be deleted by forwarding. As long as it is not deleted after forwarding, it will still return to the state when it was received. Moreover, from the basic content of mobile phone short messages, when you open your mobile phone inbox, the information contains the sender's mobile phone number, sending time and specific content (words, symbols, images), and it is also recorded in the network operating system. If the other party who provides SMS evidence raises an objection, the judge shall solve it through appraisal. Therefore, whether SMS is acceptable or not cannot be generalized. I suggest you.