1 Relevance and Purpose of Digital Verification 1.1 Introduction As technology advances, so too does our access to information on events taking place around the world. The ready availability of mobile recording devices such as smartphones, and the now global reach of communication and information, means that evidence of suspected human rights violations can be gathered remotely, without having to go into the field. A large amount of videos, images and other pieces of content are either shared directly or uploaded to social media websites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. These platforms provide a rich source of content that may be useful when seeking information on possible human rights violations. However, this digital content is not always reliable. For example, it may have been manipulated, or may not actually depict the event it claims. The purpose of this guide is to help you, as a human rights defender, to verify digital video or photographic content of alleged human rights violations. In this context, verifying means determining not only whether a video or photo has been manipulated or is authentic, but also evaluating its reliability. It is important to be aware that content may have been uploaded for a specific purpose, resulting in bias. For example, although accurate, a video may only depict a part of the overall events, excluding relevant information. Effective verification therefore attempts to gain an understanding of all aspects of an event, instead of only focusing on the validity of one piece of content. Verification is essential: only authenticated videos or photos should be used for human rights documentation. Verifying digital content and successfully documenting human rights violations can be extremely difficult. This is partially due to the fact that this is still an evolving discipline. On top of that, content available on the Internet is shared widely and rapidly and is therefore often difficult to verify, as the original source of the content can be hard to find. This Guide will talk you through the verification process, and provide detailed examples of issues faced and how to resolve them. 6