The Syrian Archive: A Methodological Case Study of Open-Source Investigation of State Crime Using Video Evidence from Social Media Platforms

This article begins with the underlying assumption that data and the designing of informational infrastructure is not neutral; rather, that the acts of tagging, indexing, aggregating and defining of data and data categories are inherently political acts. How and whether information is collected, archived, categorized, and eventually published are further political choices that necessitate critical review, rather than being taken at face value. Taking a self-reflective approach, the objective of this article is to develop a methodological understanding of online-based open-source human rights investigations, with a particular focus on the Syrian Archive. This article aims to align with the work of other scholars investigating the new field of online open-source intelligence and big data analysis, particularly that by human rights organizations, as well as with scholars in the field of data ethics, digital rights and privacy, statactivism, and science and technology studies. Providing empirical and qualitative evidence on the potential of online-based open-source data collection in this context will address a crucial gap in the current literature.