WITNESS

WITNESS is deeply humbled to receive the first ever Peabody for Global Impact - a new category at the 84th annual Peabody Awards recognizing “media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better.” Accepting the award, Executive Director Sam Gregory recognized “our partners and the millions of frontline witnesses with whom we share this recognition — who are land defenders, cop watchers, war crimes investigators, citizen journalists, community media, and ordinary people caught in conflict who stand up for their rights.” He also thanked co-founder Peter Gabriel and WITNESS’ longstanding allies and supporters. For over 30 years, WITNESS has supported communities “to tell their stories and gather evidence through video,” with far-reaching impacts, including “the conviction of a warlord, victories in protecting Indigenous lands, and trusted archives of war crimes footage.” This recognition comes at a pivotal moment, when WITNESS’ work to defend the impact and integrity of critical video is more urgent than ever. As we move forward, WITNESS is at the forefront of fighting to ensure that video and emerging technologies work for, not against, #HumanRights.

In the midst of the largest global election year in over two decades, many of us are wondering if the fears around deceptive #AI and #deepfakes are justified or overblown by the hype cycle. With 2024 #elections impacting close to half of the world's population, and a growing inability to distinguish what is fake from what is real, what is the actual state of affairs in this “AI Election'' year? Tune in to a discussion with Sam Gregory, WITNESS' Executive Director and award-winning technologist as he shares insights into what’s been happening in global elections, break down the most urgent concerns posed by AI, and share concrete recommendations on what we must do now. As a leading civil society voice at the intersection of AI and #HumanRights, WITNESS’ work is grounded in years of deep collaboration with frontline human rights defenders, key technology companies, and policy-makers. Here, Sam answers your most pressing questions about the influence of deceptive AI on this consequential election year and beyond. https://lnkd.in/eE6te6Ca

Thank you Peabody Awards for acknowledging WITNESS’ work of over three decades of defending video and technology for #HumanRights - it was an honor to receive the Global Impact Award, presented by Hasan Minhaj, and accepted by Executive Director Sam Gregory on behalf of our global team.

What does video archiving for #HumanRights mean? Join us in a conversation of globally diverse voices from movements + communities on the ground on best #archiving practices. Hear WITNESS & partners Freedom Film Network, Rohingya Genocide Archive, Refugee Law Project, Archivistas en Espanglish & OpenArchive in this live-streamed huddle ‘Human Rights Video Archiving: Sharing Community-Based Approaches’! Tune in 9AM EST/15:00 CET/18:30 IST on Monday 10th June 2024! #ArchiveLife 🐝 wit.to/Huddle-ArchiveLife

🌿 CONVOCATORIA 🌿 (English below🔻) Laboratorio Popular de Medios Libres, WITNESS, CEFO Indígena y Guardian Project invitan a comunidades, movimientos, organizaciones y colectivos de Abya Yala que estén en procesos de defensa del territorio a participar de la Escuela de Comunicación y Tecnologías Libres para la Defensa Común del Territorio. La escuela consiste en el aprovechamiento de técnicas de reporteo, recolección de datos, edición, archivo y almacenamiento seguro de material multimedia para fortalecer la incidencia en medios de comunicación como también fortalecer estrategias jurídicas de defensa territorial. La fecha límite para postular es el 15 de junio de 2024. El formulario de postulación está disponible en escuelacomun.yanapak.org (o pueden descargarlo y enviarlo por correo electrónico a contacto@yanapak.org). Los resultados de la convocatoria se informarán el 15 de julio de 2024 por correo electrónico. Esta iniciativa es posible gracias al apoyo de Cultural Survival y WACC - Global. --- 🌿 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS 🌿 Laboratorio Popular de Medios Libres, WITNESS, CEFO Indígena and Guardian Project invite communities, movements, organizations and collectives of Abya Yala that are in processes of territorial defense to participate in the School of Communication and Free Technologies for the Common Defense of Territory. The school consists of the use of reporting techniques, data collection, editing, archiving and secure storage of multimedia material to strengthen advocacy in the media, as well as legal strategies for territorial defense. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2024. The application form is available at escuelacomun.yanapak.org (you can also download and send it via email to contacto@yanapak.org). The results of the call for applications will be announced by e-mail on July 15, 2024. Please share this call with your community, interested organizations and wider movements in Latin America! This initiative is made possible with the support of Cultural Survival and WACC - Global.

Today, we're launching 'Evaluating Digital Open Source Imagery: A Guide for Judges & Fact-Finders’ - available in EN, FR, ES, AR, & UKR! This pioneering guide seeks to demystify the complex process of evaluating digital open-source imagery. At its core, the guide aims to equip judges, fact-finders, and decision-makers with the necessary tools to assess the credibility, reliability, and probative value of open source evidence effectively. The guide is the result of a collaboration between WITNESS and leading institutions including Queen Mary University of London, Open Society Justice Initiative, University of California, Berkeley, mnemonic, Swansea University, University of Essex, University of Oxford, and the Centre for Fundamental Rights - Hertie School. https://lnkd.in/eZMu52e7

WITNESS is honored to receive Peabody's inaugural Global Impact Award -- created to recognize "media or organizations that have profoundly changed the world for the better." For 80+ years, Peabody Awards has celebrated #StoriesThatMatter and for 30+ years WITNESS has empowered people to harness the power of video and technology to defend #HumanRights. We are humbled to join this tremendous class of impactful storytellers -  recognizing this has been a year of extraordinary courage by journalists and community defenders who have documented injustice, amplified resistance, and held a mirror to power the world over. We share this recognition with our global partners and the thousands of community defenders whom we have had the privilege of working with – who have, at great risk and with inspiring ingenuity, harnessed the power of video and technology to tell their own stories The WITNESS team will be heading to LA to join this year’s cohort at the 84th #PeabodyAwards on June 9th.

We are happy to share that we just completed a series of hands-on workshops with WITNESS to review their monitoring & evaluation framework in sync with their updated strategic vision. Last year we had the opportunity to evaluate their programmatic work which greatly informed this joint effort and allowed us to dig deep into outcomes, refine formulations and help bridge gaps. Collaborating again with WITNESS was a pleasure! Want to follow their work helping people harness the power of video and technology to protect and defend human rights? 🌱 Check out their revamped library of FREE resources for video activists and trainers (link to Resource Library in comments): https://lnkd.in/e9vc2u8F

🚨 We tested some of the most popular online deepfake detection tools… and we broke them all! 🚨 In this article for Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, shirin anlen and I delved into the intricate world of #AIdetection, examining both the capabilities and shortcomings that free publicly available tools face in distinguishing real from synthetic media. This is not an argument against computational detection, but a call to invest more in it. How effective are publicly available #AI detection tools in spotting deepfakes? We took them for a spin. 🔎 What we found 🔎 1. We were able to trick the detectors we tested using simple methods like decreasing resolution, editing out portions of the content, building effects like blur directly into generation prompts, creating a new version of a file, or adding context outside the original frame (‘out-painting’). 2. The accuracy of a tool depends on the quality, quantity, and type of training data used, as well as the algorithmic functions that it was designed for, e.g. a detection model may be able to spot AI-generated images, but may not be able to identify that a video is a deepfake created from swapping people’s faces. 3. Many tools lack transparency about their training data, capabilities, limitations and what they do with the data submitted to them. 🧐 Insights 🧐 1. The outputs, often binary or probabilistic, can mislead without expert interpretation. 2. BUT detection tools can still play a role when used thoughtfully as part of a verification process that includes other, and more traditional, verification techniques (like reverse image search and similar #OSINT resources).  3. Moving forward, continuous innovation, transparency, and ethical considerations will be crucial for developing more robust and trustworthy detection capabilities. Helping people identify what is fake is essential for protecting democracy. At WITNESS we're interested in engaging with people working on making detection stronger, as well as with anyone interested in equipping those fighting deceptive content at the information frontlines, such as journalists and fact-checkers. 👉 Read the full article for a deeper dive into how these tools work: https://lnkd.in/eSKPph7V Thanks Eduardo Suarez for publishing the piece. 

WITNESS is honored to welcome two visionary leaders into senior positions to support our global mission. We are pleased to introduce human rights advocate Shantha Rau Barriga as our very first Deputy Executive Director and Leandro Ramos, lifelong social justice activist, as our new Global Programs Director. Shantha comes to WITNESS from Human Rights Watch, where she was the Founding Director of the Disability Rights Division, overseeing research and advocacy on the rights of people with disabilities and older people around the world. Throughout a career spanning over two decades, she has demonstrated a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and brings to WITNESS rich experience in leadership of global teams. Leandro is joining the WITNESS team after serving as the Program Director of Greenpeace Brasil, where he oversaw the organization's Campaigns, Communications, Legal, and Political teams. In his prior work, Leandro headed wide ranging campaigns on human rights and environmental issues – while also collaborating with grassroots activists on local campaigns and training programs in complex contexts. Under Shantha and Leandro’s leadership, WITNESS is looking forward to deepening our impact and learning from the breadth of their experiences. Please join us in welcoming Shantha and Leandro! You can read the full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/ewrWZ4eP