Includes bibliographical references.

Part I. Introduction : the emergence of digital witnesses / Sam Dubberley, Alexa Koenig, and Daragh Murray -- Open source investigation for human rights reporting : a brief history / Chritoph Koettl, Daragh Murray, and Sam Dubberley -- Open source evidence and human rights cases : a modern social history / Alexa Koenig -- Prosecuting atrocity crimes with open source evidence : lessons from the international criminal court / Lindsay Freeman -- Open source investigations and the technology-driven knowledge controversy in human rights fact-finding / Ella McPherson, Isabel Guenette Thornton, and Matt Mahmoudi -- Open source investigations for human rights : current and future challenges / Scott Edwards.

Part II. How to conduct discovery using open source methods / Paul Myers -- How to preserve open source information effectively / Yvonne Hg -- Targeted mass archiving of open source information : a case study / Jeff Deutch and Niko Para -- How to verify and authenticate user-generated content / Aric Toler -- The role and use of satellite imagery for human rights investigations / Micah Farfour -- Part III. Ethics in open source investigations / Zara Rahman and Gabriela Ivens -- Digital human rights investigations : vicarious trauma, PTSD, and tactics for resilience / Sam Dubberley, Margaret Satterthwaite, Sarah Knuckey, and Adam Brown -- Open source investigations : understanding digital threats, risks, and harms / Joseph Gray with Lisa Rudnick -- Part IV. Open source information : part of the puzzle / Fred Abrahams and Daragh Murray -- Open source investigations for legal accountability : challenges and best practices / Alexa Koenig and Lindsay Freeman.

From videos of rights violations, to satellite images of environmental degradation, to eyewitness accounts disseminated on social media, human rights practitioners have access to more data today than ever before. To say that mobile technologies, social media, and increased connectivity are having a significant impact on human rights practice would be an understatement. Modern technology - and the enhanced access it provides to information about abuse - has the potential to revolutionise human rights reporting and documentation, as well as the pursuit of legal accountability. However, these new methods for information gathering and dissemination have also created significant challenges for investigators and researchers. For example, videos and photographs depicting alleged human rights violations or war crimes are often captured on the mobile phones of victims or political sympathisers. The capture and dissemination of content often happens haphazardly, and for a variety of motivations, including raising awareness of the plight of those who have been most affected, or for advocacy purposes with the goal of mobilising international public opinion. For this content to be of use to investigators it must be discovered, verified, and authenticated. Discovery, verification, and authentication have, therefore, become critical skills for human rights organisations and human rights lawyers. This book is the first to cover the history, ethics, methods, and best-practice associated with open source research. It is intended to equip the next generation of lawyers, journalists, sociologists, data scientists, other human rights activists, and researchers with the cutting-edge skills needed to work in an increasingly digitized, and information-saturated environment.