The Berkeley Protocol as a New Guide for Strengthening Digital Investigation Methods
Speaker(s): Koenig, A. (Executive Director, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law; Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Law; Co-founder, UC Berkeley Investigations Lab); Freeman, L. (Director of Technology, Law, and Policy, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Date: 24 August 2022
Speaker Session Summary
SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Alexa Koenig (Executive Director, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law; Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Law; Co-founder, UC Berkeley Investigations Lab) and Ms. Lindsay Freeman (Director of Technology, Law, and Policy, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law) as part of its SMA EUCOM Speaker Series.
The increasing proliferation of smart phones and internet availability is changing the way that digital investigations are occurring, especially in remote areas. While the digital realm has existed since the invention of radio, video and satellite imagery have given digital investigators new tools within the past few decades. New tools and the creation of social media have also resulted in the need for new global standards regarding the collection and handling of digital information for legal purposes. These new standards are encapsulated in the Berkley Protocol. Dr. Koenig explained that the Berkley Protocol—the first international standard used in digital investigation and prosecution—is used to give investigators a starting point regarding the quality standards of information being collected and how to legally go undercover on social media.
Since the development of the Berkley Protocol, other protocols, such as the Istanbul Protocol and the Minnesota Protocol, have been created to handle more specific types of digital investigations. These three protocols were created by consulting journalists, police, and other professionals who work in an open-source environment. Professional, methodological, and ethical principles for investors were then created to ensure that the evidence collected could be used by the prosecution. The protocols have already been used in investigations in Syria, Myanmar, and most recently, Ukraine, to identify human rights violations. As an example, the presenters showed a video of “body snatching” in Myanmar that presents evidence of violent crimes using satellite imagery and street cameras. Ms. Freeman added that the investigators were able to use social media platforms—Twitter and Facebook—to establish timelines surrounding these crimes. Extensive training was also given to investigators, including about the dangers of using their own social media to conduct online investigations.
For more information about the Berkeley Protocol and its application, please seehttps://www.ohchr.org/en/publications/policy-and-methodological-publications/berkeley-protocol-digital-open-source and a recent article by Dr. Koenig and Ms. Freeman, entitled “Strengthening Atrocity Cases with Digital Open Source Information” (https://lieber.westpoint.edu/strengthening-atrocity-cases-digital-open-source-investigations/).
Dr. Alexa Koenig, JD, PhD, is executive director of UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center (winner of the 2015MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions) and a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Law.She is also co-founder of UC Berkeley’s Investigations Lab, which has helped pioneer the use of onlineinformation to strengthen human rights investigations and investigative reporting. She is a member of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Scientific Freedom andResponsibility, co-chair of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Law Committee, and aninaugural member of the Technology Advisory Board at Human Rights First, among other posts. Dr. Koenigplayed a leading role in the development of the Berkeley Protocol, which was released in December 2020in partnership with the United Nations Human Rights Office to set international standards for online opensource investigations. She has been honored with the United Nations Association-SF’s Global HumanRights Award, UC Berkeley’s Mark Bingham Award for Excellence, and as a 2020 Woman Inspiring Changeby Harvard Law School. Her most recent books include Hiding in Plain Sight (UC Press 2016), DigitalWitness (Oxford University Press 2020), and Graphic (forthcoming 2022).
Ms. Lindsay Freeman is the Director of Technology, Law, and Policy at the Human Rights Center, UCBerkeley School of Law. Ms. Freeman is an international criminal and human rights lawyer with experienceworking at the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.She specializes in the use of technology, digital evidence, and online investigations for justice andaccountability purposes, particularly in the investigation and prosecution of atrocity crimes. Ms. Freemanled the drafting team of the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, which the Center copublished with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Previously, Ms. Freemanworked as a trial lawyer for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and a law clerk in the US Attorney’sEconomic Crime and Securities Fraud Unit. She holds an Adv. LL.M. in public International Law from LeidenUniversity, a J.D. from University of San Francisco School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science fromMiddlebury College.
Site-wide Search
Search all site content, including all NSI and SMA publications, SMA Speaker series, NSI Team member bios, services, portfolio projects, company info, and more.
