Evidence of Gaza War Crimes Disappears Faster Than It Can Be Archived
Wendy Wright Investigative
A report from Al Jazeera's The Take (@aljazeeraenglish), drawing on an investigation for Dropsight News, highlights a critical challenge in documenting the conflict in Gaza: digital evidence is vanishing from the internet faster than it can be preserved for future accountability.
Investigative journalist Lila Hassan notes that while social media has created a vast "accidental archive" of the war, this material is incredibly fragile. Content is frequently removed by platforms for allegedly violating community guidelines related to graphic violence or terrorism designations, sometimes due to automated errors, such as footage of casualties being mislabeled as pornography. Furthermore, journalists' and activists' accounts are being hacked or deleted entirely, erasing irreplaceable firsthand documentation.
On the ground in Gaza, archivists face immense physical obstacles. Visual journalists like Soliman Hijjy, displaced multiple times, carry hard drives containing his work as he moves, creating backup copies and sharing data wherever possible to prevent total loss. However, the scale of destruction, constant displacement, and lack of basic necessities like food, electricity, and internet severely outpace the human capacity to systematically collect and verify evidence. This work is further complicated by the urgent need to authenticate material now to combat future challenges like AI-generated deepfakes and data degradation known as "bit rot."
The preservation effort is crucial for ongoing cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, a single social media post is insufficient for these tribunals; cases require a chain of custody, witness testimony, and corroboration from multiple sources. The report concludes that without immediate protection for journalists, dedicated international funding, and secure technical solutions, a vital historical and legal record risks being lost forever.
Source: Why is evidence of Israel's war crimes in Gaza disappearing? | The Take (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy9Hb29qBHs)
