Can I quote private social media messages online/in public?

[yy958]

I have a screenshot of a text between two old friends sent to me by one of them and a couple messages by an enemy that were sent to me that I want to put in this paper for a bunch of friends. Is this legal to do without their consent? Both of them will read this paper and I would like to have some response that is politically correct if they say I can't show those publicly. They were sent to me, although the other old friend got mad at the old friend for sending the photo, so aren't I able to show those to anyone? I was thinking about making a quick paragraph at the beginning of the paper stating a quote from a legal document showing I can display these messages, does anyone know any sort of legal document that covers this? The messages were all sent on Facebook if that helps.

[Unisath]

If texts, messages, etc. work the same as letters do, then yes, you most certainly can. The difference lies in that the messages are not technically yours, they're Facebook's (more than likely, at least - skim through the TOS or something).

[yy958]

Thanks, can't believe I didn't think of the TOS.