The small team taking on war criminals with a laptop and the help of AI

When reports emerged that hundreds of people had been killed in an attack on a primary school in southern Iran, a small team of investigators rushed to social media.

It was the first day of joint US-Israeli attacks, and misinformation began to spread on the internet. Restrictions imposed by Iranian authorities made it dangerous for people who witnessed the strike to speak.

This left Human Rights Watch’s digital investigation team with the critical task of uncovering the facts and uncovering the truth surrounding the attack.

The eight-person team investigating war crimes around the world immediately went to work, meticulously analyzing every piece of digital evidence to reconstruct the events of what was one of the deadliest incidents in the ongoing war in the Middle East.

They scoured social media for any images or information they could from their offices in London, Berlin, Geneva and California.

Over the next week, they spent hours verifying and analyzing numerous videos and photographs recorded in the immediate aftermath of the attack, during search-and-rescue operations, and at funerals.

Satellite images from the last 25 years were examined by the team and compared with images taken after the attack. They showed both the area and the nearby cemetery where the victims were apparently buried.

They revealed that at least eight structures on the campus were directly hit by munitions; at least one of them was shot, causing serious damage to the school.

Sophia Jones, part of the team, said: “There needs to be a swift and thorough investigation into this attack, including whether those responsible should have known there was a school there and that it would be full of children and teachers before noon.”

A week later, a report was published calling on the United States and Israel to immediately assess their responsibilities and prosecute anyone responsible for war crimes.

What is a digital research laboratory?

This case is one of many by the team, whose work ranges from tracking down suspected criminals to analyzing patterns of deportation of immigrants to using technology to investigate conflict abuses and human rights abuses around the world.

Dubbed the team’s digital research laboratory, it uses social media, artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to document crimes and abuses, identifying and holding perpetrators accountable.

His work covers protests in Europe to conflicts in the Middle East, deaths in custody in El Salvador, as well as violence in countries such as Burkina Faso, Sudan and Myanmar.

The team was formed a decade ago and investigations can last from days to years. Their findings are published reports that expose wrongdoings and aim to pressure governments and policymakers to take action.

Sam Dubberley, who runs the organisation’s technology, rights and investigations division, said the work was vital at a time when misinformation was soaring.

​“It is definitely becoming a space much faster where human rights defenders are under much more pressure than before,” he said. Independent.

How do they use technology?

The team is constantly trawling social media platforms, searching for photos, videos or audio of attacks and verifying and fact-checking them.

​They investigate military units, alleged perpetrators, or victims to determine who they are, what they post online, and whether there is evidence of their involvement in a crime.

​“People post videos you would never think they would, often in places they think are not public, like small Telegram groups,” Mr. Dubberley explained.

One of its main tools is the analysis of satellite images used to track the destruction of villages or areas. They meticulously reconstruct attack sites using 3D models to provide clear evidence of before and after effects.

Artificial Intelligence is an important part of their operations; It helps them collect data from foreign government websites or mine datasets for patterns in arrest rates.

Earlier this month they released a biennial report on civilian killings in Burkina Faso. The team used artificial intelligence to analyze nearly 40,000 posts to uncover key information and expose the perpetrators’ activities on a scale that would otherwise be impossible to address.

Where do they work?

Digital tools made it possible for the team to investigate alleged crimes anywhere, including countries they could not enter, such as Russia, Iran or Myanmar.

Mr Dubberley said: “Technology allows us to look over walls that have been built, even in places like China. Peering over the Great Firewall is very difficult, very difficult, it takes brave people, but it is possible.”

Iran’s internet blackout has made it difficult for them to obtain and verify information, but they can still access sources via WhatsApp, Telegram and other social media. “People know technology is important to getting their stories told,” Mr Dubberley added.

“We know that capturing and verifying their stories is a really important way for us to do our job and ensure accountability and prevention.

​“Of course it’s important to investigate what’s going on in the Middle East right now. It’s important to investigate what’s going on in Ukraine, and that’s what we’re doing.”

​“But making sure we have the resources to investigate forgotten cases is also really important.”

What did they achieve?

Mr. Dubberley said one of his biggest achievements was a 2023 report that found Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and refugees trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between 2022 and 2023.

The organization was able to map the route used to cross the border, thanks to geospatial and open source researchers on its digital research team who verified video and images recorded by migrants and border residents.

Analysis of satellite images allowed them to assess the development of security infrastructure at the border and identify burial sites near migrant camps that had grown significantly.

Following the report, the German Ministry of Justice suspended the training program for Saudi Arabian border guards.

Mr Dubberley concluded: “We got so much media coverage that it was part of a strategy to embarrass Saudi Arabia as much as anything else, to see if we could at least slow down the killings, and they did, at least for a while.”