Digital arsonists: Why your news feed is new crime scene

I remember my first week in forensic science graduate classes. We weren't only looking at blood splatter or ballistics; we were learning about the philosophy of a crime scene. It was there that I first truly internalized Locard’s Exchange Principle: the idea that every contact leaves a trace. Our professor was adamant that a crime scene is a sacred space where the chain of custody is everything. If you touch something without a reason, you don’t just move an object; you contaminate the truth. Today, as a journalist working for an international newspaper and a forensic science student, I look at the world through a dual lens and I realize that the most dangerous crime scenes are no longer cordoned off with yellow plastic tape.