- 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 […]
- Strengthening Collective Capacity to Respond to the War on Gaza Read WITNESS’ Statement. This post is also available in Arabic. A communications blackout plunged millions of Gazans, including civilians, journalists, paramedic teams and aid agencies, in an information vacuum from October 27 to midday October 29 when connectivity was partially restored. Today, we stand in a moment fraught with the gravest of risks for further […]
- Using Generative AI for Human Rights Advocacy In this post we explore the potential of using generative AI and synthetic media tools (“AI tools”) to support human rights advocacy and social critique–but only with appropriate caution and ethical considerations.
- Use Video and Technology for the Defense of Earth and Indigenous Peoples Indigenous communities and broader climate justice movements have long been confronting capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and related forces of exploitation and destruction. Indigenous-led resistance to these threats has woven ancestral wisdom with emerging tools and tactics– including audiovisual technology. Visuals evincing the deterioration of the planet have strengthened demands for urgent, globally coordinated responses to […]
- Eyes on Internet Shutdowns: Documenting for Human Rights This is the first of a series of posts to mark the official launch of WITNESS’s global campaign on internet shutdowns, that highlights community strategies for documenting human rights abuses during a shutdown. Visit the campaign homepage to stay updated about new resources. This blog post is available in Spanish, Arabic and Farsi. In an impassioned […]
- WITNESS at RightsCon 2021 Online For the last decade, RightsCon has served as a forum for activists, civil society, and international stakeholders to gather around critical issues, questions, and possibilities that lay at the intersection of technology and human rights. As a global organization committed to supporting communities to use video and technology for justice, WITNESS aligns with the central […]
- Ugandan Elections: ‘We Made Sure the Cameras Kept Rolling for Safety’ Preceding the widely discredited Ugandan presidential elections of January 14 2021, the main opposition candidate Mr Robert Kyagulanyi “(popularly known as “Bobi Wine”)” urged his supporters to use their smartphones to record cases of poll fraud and violence. “They fear the camera. Use your camera as much as possible, go live wherever you can, expose, […]
- Turn to Video, Not Police In Addressing Anti-Asian Violence Bystander and surveillance footage has helped expose the rising (and undercounted) violence against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in the U.S. As we contend with the grief and rage spurred by these horrific incidents, we join those seeking answer to the urgent question: How do we keep each other safe? We know that police are […]
- The Power of Video in 2020: Police Brutality in Africa Author: Loui Mainga In 2020, debate on increased visibility of police abuse gathered momentum in Africa following their heavy-handedness under the guise of enforcing COVID-19-related restrictions and much later, the #EndSARS protest movement in Nigeria. Given the pivotal role social media is playing in exposing and bringing heightened awareness to police abuse, a number of […]
- Making the [In]Visible Powerful: Leveraging Climate Visuals in Courts This article first appeared on Open Global Rights in English and Spanish on October 30, 2020. Climate Change in the Courtroom Human rights researcher Alexa Koenig said, “Visuals are often the bridge between lived experiences on the ground and some of the greatest seats of power,” but that was not what Ashley Funk thought would happen when she received her […]
- The Adobe Content Authenticity Initiative approach to authenticity infrastructure against media manipulation Launch of the Content Authenticity Initiative White Paper Today the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) spearheaded by Adobe, Twitter and the New York Times publishes its White Paper. WITNESS is a co-author on the paper and has been part of the Working Group developing the standards alongside other groups including TruePic, Microsoft, the BBC, CBC and […]
- WITNESS joins 14 organizations to urge GIFCT to respect human rights WITNESS and 14 other organizations have joined together to send a public letter to the newly appointed Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) Executive Director Nicholas Rasmussen to apprise him of threats to human rights posed by GIFCT. Many of us have been warning companies and lawmakers about these issues for years. WITNESS is […]
- WITNESS at RightsCon Online 2020 Under the entwined and inflamed injustices that the world is facing (including a pandemic, authoritarianism, corporate exploitation of resources and privacy, racial capitalism, surveillance and the suppression of dissent), it is vital to have spaces that foster innovative resistance. RightsCon has long met this need. This annual gathering centers around the ever-changing role of […]
- The Right to Record for human rights during COVID-19 When WITNESS says the Right to Record, we are referring to the ability to pick up a camera or cell phone and film the police or military without retaliation. We are also talking about the initiative, commitment, attitude, and courage that it takes to exercise that right, and the organizing communities do to make this […]
- WITNESS joins 75 experts calling for platforms to preserve data about takedowns during COVID-19 The importance of accurate information during this pandemic is clear. But knowledge about the novel coronavirus is rapidly evolving. This is also an unprecedented opportunity to study how online information flows ultimately affect health outcomes, and to evaluate the macro- and micro-level consequences of relying on automation to moderate content in a complex and evolving […]
