AGLC4 Rule 7.16: Social Media Posts

Posts, forum entries and uploaded videos are cited by username, the post's title in quotation marks, and a bracket with the platform, the full date and, where needed, the time, then the URL. The username is reproduced exactly, including an at sign on Twitter, with the real name in brackets if relevant and not apparent. The title is omitted where the post has none, the viewing time zone is added where the platform localises times, and a time is given where several posts share a date.

AGLC4 page 131

Format

Quoted from the Guide, page 131
Username, ‘Title’ (Social Media Platform, Full Date, Time) <URL>.

A boxed element is filled in with the source's details; everything outside a box is written exactly as shown.

Formatting

  • The username is copied exactly, keeping its capitalisation and any at sign, roman.
  • A real name, where relevant and not shown by the username, follows the username after a space in round brackets.
  • A title, where the post has one, follows a comma after the username, roman in single curly quotation marks; when there is no title, no comma follows the username.
  • The bracket after a space gives the platform, a comma and the full date.
  • Where a time is given it follows the date after a comma, written in hours and minutes with am or pm attached and no space, followed by the time zone abbreviation.
  • Where only a time zone is needed, it follows the date after a space with no comma.
  • A time pinpoint for a video follows the bracket after a space.
  • The URL follows after a space in angle brackets, and an archived link may follow after a comma and the words archived at, particularly for posts that may be deleted.
  • Profile pages, as opposed to posts, are cited under rule 7.15.
  • The citation ends with a full stop.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 131
  1. 114
    Brooking Creative Labs, ‘Is America Dreaming?: Understanding Social Mobility’ (YouTube, 20 July 2015) 00:00:00–00:01:00 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6-UaBECN4>.
  2. 115
    chapteriiibestbits (Instagram, 21 July 2016 AEST) <https://www.instagram.com/p/BIICBevgk31>.
  3. 116
    @s_m_stephenson (Scott Stephenson) (Twitter, 17 July 2017, 9:37pm AEST) <https://twitter.com/s_m_stephenson/status/887169425551441921>, archived at <https://perma.cc/7A63-G2RT>.

See also

Check your footnotes against these rules

Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.

AGLC4 citation checker AGLC4 citation generator

Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.