The platform’s methodology complies with journalistic standards employed by the Reuters and AP international news agencies. When uploading an alert, users are encouraged to share links to news or online media outlets to help the verification process.
Each alert is verified by three trusted and independent sources which include but are not limited to:
- local and national media outlets
- journalist unions
- police reports
- social media accounts of the individuals directly involved.
When violations are self-reported or when clarification is needed, our experts also verify alerts with the media worker(s) affected by getting first-hand testimony, as well as speaking to journalists’ unions and other relevant organisations and stakeholders. Our verification process is multi-layered: in which our experts work with a team of independent journalists to verify and report incidents submitted to the website. The goal is to achieve the most complete narrative of the incident that accurately reflects the objective events.
We require at least three independent verification sources. Those sources should be trustworthy news links, internet sources or verification via individual contact, which may be with the target of the threat themself, as well as witnesses or other relevant stakeholders with knowledge of the incident.
Due to reasons of data protection and the protection of at-risk journalists and media workers, witnesses, and sources, we do not publish any information about the verification process via individual contacts. Instead, we just publish an acknowledgement that the information was obtained from individual contacts and the number of contacts we communicated with..
Only in exceptional cases will an incident be published with fewer than three verification sources. These cases are threats which aren’t published in the media yet or are too sensitive to be published, but may be verified through individual contact. All sources and verification processes are accessed and approved by our expert network. Reports are treated with utmost confidentiality.