Investigative collective Bellingcat has been pioneering the use of open source evidence like social media posts to bring justice and accountability for human rights abuses, atrocities, and disinformation. Its investigations have included detailing Russian military intelligence’s role in poisoning opposition figures, discovering who was responsible for a devastating, mysterious oil spill in Trinidad and Tobago, and illuminating the murky funding of far-right disinformation websites in India. Bellingcat has been developing a process to use open source evidence in international court cases that seek justice for atrocities and other human rights abuses, like those dealing with the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before the International Criminal Court. “It really helps complement other types of investigative work, witness statements, evidence gathered from the ground, when you have a vast amount of open-source data to support that,” explains Bellingcat’s founder, Eliot Higgins. Physical evidence is no longer so necessary, he says, “because there are multiple other ways to verify whether a video or photograph is taken in the place it claims to be.” We spoke to Higgins about the collective’s work and how it strengthens human rights and democracy: https://osf.to/3VZa7XQ Listen to more from Eliot Higgins on the latest episode of What's Wrong with Democracy?, a podcast produced by Tortoise Media and supported by us. #OpenSociety #Democracy #OpenSource #IndependentJournalism #Investigations #InternationalJustice #Disinformation
Why is access to reliable information so important for democracy? On the latest episode of What's Wrong With Democracy, Ben Ansell is joined by Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)'s Rebecca Vincent, and Daraj Media founder Alia Ibrahim. Listen: https://lnk.to/WWWD7 Supported by Open Society Foundations.
