Internet, Social Media, AI Output & Software
Web pages, archives, posts, video, AI output, code and data, cited to outlast the link.
A link is not a citation. A URL tells a browser where to look today. A citation tells your reader what the source is, who stands behind it, which version you read and when, and it still does that the day the link dies. Below are two real online citations: the Supreme Court’s own page about the links in its opinions, and a 2019 post that the Fifth Circuit cited to show that a soft drink’s name has no period.
A web page with no date of its own
Online Sources Cited in Opinions, Sup. Ct. of the U.S., https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/cited_urls/ (last visited Oct. 14, 2026).
- 1 title from the heading on the page, never the browser tab
- 2 site or owner, shortened by Table D
- 3 the address, copied character for character
- 4 the day you looked: only when the page gives no date
A post, dated and timed by the platform
Dr Pepper (@drpepper), Twitter (Jan. 28, 2019, 3:12 PM PST), https://twitter.com/drpepper/status/1090024798133108736.
- 5 account name as displayed
- 6 handle, with its @
- 7 platform as named the day of the post
- 8 the post’s own date, time and zone
- 9 post address, ending in the post’s number
20.1Reading an online citation
In the print and Kindle editions
20.2Print, official online or the web: which version to cite
In the print and Kindle editions
20.3Web pages, blogs and documents posted online
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20.4Link rot and archive links
In the print and Kindle editions
20.5Social media posts
In the print and Kindle editions
20.6Video, audio and podcasts: pinpoint by time
In the print and Kindle editions
20.7Email, texts and chats
In the print and Kindle editions
20.8Generative AI output
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20.9Software, code, datasets and DOIs
In the print and Kindle editions
20.10Short forms
In the print and Kindle editions
20.11Errors to catch
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