- As content moderators go home, content could go down Updated with further information from Facebook that was published 19 March 2020 at 19:22 Pacific Time, after this post was already published. Most of us are spending a lot of time on social media right now. Social media has been instrumental in spreading misinformation about COVID-19, but it has also provided lifelines for people across […]
- Twitter Released A Draft Policy on Synthetic Media. Here’s What Stood Out to the Activists We Consulted. — January 28, 2020 Earlier this month, Facebook released its policy on manipulated media. As a civil society organization with expert knowledge on the subject, WITNESS was asked to give input on the policy while it was under development, and it’s worth recognizing the positives of Facebook’s pro-active approach in developing a response to this […]
- Alex Jones, Myanmar, and free expression online Imagine ending up in jail with no understanding of what the charges against you are, no idea what legal process you will be facing, and no idea what happens if you appeal your conviction- or even how to appeal. It sounds like a Kafka novel, but that’s how social media platforms operate today. It has […]
- WITNESS Tech Digest: Transparency Reports on Government Interference Internet companies are producing more transparency reports about governments' demands on the companies to hand over users' data and take down their content.
- What We’re Reading: July 25 Edition Every week we publish a list of our favorite articles on human rights, video, and advocacy. This week features the promotion of LGBT rights in India, the use of social media to uncover the mystery behind the downed Malaysia Flight MH17 and much more.
- #AIDS2014 Live Twitter Recap This week will be following our Senior Program Manager Bukeni Waruzi via our #AIDS2014 Live Twitter Recap blog post. Stay tuned for live updates.
- Insights on the Use of Memes for Social Justice Campaigns A guest post by The Civic Beat's Ben Valentine about social change memes in global contexts.
- 20 Citizen Journalists We Follow Who Covered Human Rights in 2013 On Human Rights Day, we've compiled a global list of citizen journalists we follow who cover human rights and share video. Please share the list and add to it!
- The Vine Mobile App: The Social Media Fanatic’s Favorite New Tool Vine is a new application for mobile devices with some powerful features for citizen journalists.
- Marshaling Social Media to Tell Stories of Death Row Innocence Too many cooks spoil the broth? Not anymore, says One for Ten producer Laura Shacham. She's hitting the social media superhighway to bring hundreds of voices to the stories of death row exonerees.
- Videos Critique (Un)Democratic Election and Educate Voters in Yemen Earlier this month, I spent some time in Yemen's capital, Sana'a. Last year I spent four months covering the pro-democracy movement that has forced the three decade old despot, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy and current vice president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
- New Twitter Settings Activists Need To Be Aware Of Recently, I logged into my Twitter.com account. Twitter users know, this is not a frequent occurrence because most of us use third-party applications like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any of the mobile apps. But it is a necessity, especially as an activist, in order to help keep the information on your account safe and secure.
- Video Advocacy Example: ‘Yo Me Declaro’ Campaign for Human Rights Defenders In the human rights world we often talk about HRDs or 'human rights defenders' - but this is more than just an an acronym or a piece of jargon. Human rights defenders of every type play a key role in protecting, promoting and upholding the human rights of all of us. And they're not just the people who work in NGOs like WITNESS or our partners.
- Reflecting in the moment on Egypt and ‘video for change’ From the moment WITNESS was founded our vision has been to tap into the power of the video camera in the hands of everyone who wants to expose injustice and create positive change, from human rights defenders to committed citizens.
- Recommended: new book, new blog I am reading, with great pleasure, Randall Jimerson’s newly published Archives Power: Memory, Accountability and Social Justice (2009; Society of American Archivists). The book addresses the role of archives and archivists in society, and evolving perspectives on their relevance to larger issues of social justice. SAA’s blurb: “Grounded in historical and social theory, this analysis […]
