- Fortifying the Truth in the Age of Synthetic Media In May 2024, WITNESS hosted in São Paulo, Brazil, over 25 journalists, fact-checkers, technologists, policy advocates, creators, human rights defenders and community activists from different parts of the country. In our two-day workshop, we discussed threats and opportunities that generative AI and synthetic media bring to audiovisual witnessing, identifying and prioritizing collective responses that can […]
- Acampamento Terra Livre 2023: Fortify Indigenous Communication for Land Defense Read in Portuguese The biggest Indigenous gathering in Brazil took place in the last week of April this year. Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL or ‘Free Land Camp’) had as its theme “The Indigenous future is today – without land demarcation, there is no democracy!”. Through collaborative communication, Indigenous collectives denounced abuses and informed others about […]
- Pre-Empting a Crisis: Deepfake Detection Skills + Global Access to Media Forensics Tools In a recent WIRED Op-ed I share the story of a recent deepfake panic in Myanmar. Spoiler: It probably wasn’t a deepfake… but it has important implications for how we think about access to deepfake detection technology and what skills, capacities and escalation options are needed. You can read more about the story here. “RECENTLY […]
- Truth, lies and social media accountability in 2021 In 2021, critical issues at the intersection of social media, accountability, and human rights are finally at the center of global public discussion. It took the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol to lead to social media platforms finally suspending former President Donald Trump’s accounts and forcing a discussion about online content, hate and violence. […]
- Coronavirus and human rights: Preparing WITNESS’s response UPDATE: Our COVID-19 landing page is here (and Portuguese, Spanish) COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is creating rapid and dangerous human rights implications globally, directly impacting people’s lives, livelihoods, security, health, ability to work and freedom of movement and assembly, as well as leading to implications for digital rights and increasing online surveillance. The immediate implications of coronavirus – […]
- WITNESS Ally Livestreams His Own Detention – What The Video Teaches Us |Leia em português aqui| Last night one of WITNESS’ longstanding allies, Raull Santiago, was detained along with two friends as he livestreamed an abusive encounter with Riot Police officers wielding assault rifles on a dark highway overpass in Rio. The officers lived up to their reputation and behaved exactly like you’d expect one of the […]
- Storytelling in livestreaming: the Favela da Skol case in Brazil Mobil-Eyes Us is a project that explores technologies, tactics and storytelling strategies to use live video to connect viewers to frontline experiences of human rights issues. The goal is for audiences to become ‘distant witnesses’ who will take meaningful actions to support frontline activists. Mobil-Eyes-Us teaches us that a series of live broadcasts can form […]
- Rio goes live Image: Brazilian politicians livestreaming while campaigning and breaking a Marielle Franco sign. Current Rio governor on the right and a now-elected deputy breaking the sign. By Adriano Belisário As mobile phone access and Internet bandwidth increased in this decade, video streamings became an important part in the political dispute: such as in the beginning with […]
- Call-outs in live streamings Mobil-Eyes Us is a project of WITNESS and the WITNESS Media Lab to explore potential new approaches to livestream storytelling for action. We look at technologies, tactics and storytelling strategies to use live video to connect viewers to frontline experiences of human rights issues they care about, so they become ‘distant witnesses’ who will take […]
- Cracolândia: A Public Health Crisis Treated with State-Sponsored Violence Originally published in Portuguese. Brazil currently faces the world’s largest crack epidemic, with an estimated 1 million crack users. Sharing a border with 10 countries, Brazil is a prime transit hub for the coca producers of the Andes region. While the increasing use of crack there is often attributed to the war on drugs in […]
- Deadly, deadlier: Rio favela under fire by joint Police-Army forces Last week in Brazil, military police joined lethal forces with the Brazilian Army for an operation in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Maré, leaving 7 dead. Residents using mobile phones captured the deadly use of helicopters and over one hundred bullets fired during the attack.
- Police Violence Against Local Teens is Caught on Camera in Rio de Janeiro By Victor Ribeiro and Dalila Mujagic. A video containing footage of a brutal police incident went viral amongst social media users in Rio de Janeiro. The footage shows Lapa Presente officers — a unit of military police dedicated to tourist areas and funded by a group of business and economic interests called the Federation of […]
- Last Month in Video: Cameras got smarter. Will we? From Florida teens using video as a powerful advocacy tool, to Pakistan's High Court ruling on network shutdowns, to the supercharged technology behind "smart" cameras and facial recognition: this is Last Month in Video, February 2018 edition.
- Last Month in Video: September 2017 From Rio to Cairo's Mashrou' Leila concert and a Utah nurse's refusal to an unconstitutional blood draw, we review September 2017 in human rights video.
- Rio’s favelas score victory against military police abuses Rio favelas win victory over police abuses as two police commanders were denounced by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for crimes committed in the illegal invasions of private residences in favela Complexo do Alemão.
