About Us
Our Mission
OpenArchive co-develops responsive, secure, verifiable, and ethical archiving tools and resources with human rights defenders and NGOs to advance justice and accountability.
Our vision
To create a more just, equitable, and sustainable media ecosystem where people's histories set the historical record straight.
What we do
Why this work matters
People armed with smartphones are history's first responders, amassing rich, contextualized mobile documentation. In a world full of injustice, this media is often evidence of human rights abuses, which is fostering widespread and unprecedented demands for change. However, most of these recordings presently reside on social media platforms that can chill free speech. Further, the media and those posting are subject to targeting (eg. doxxing), censorship, privacy breaches, and data loss. While social media is an acceptable distribution platform, it does not provide sufficient privacy protections, verification, or archival preservation of this vital media.
Our phones are replaceable but the moments we capture on them are not. Many human rights defenders, journalists, and eyewitnesses are storing precious pieces of history on the most fragile devices they own. The media itself is also ephemeral, as new threats to digital media arise.
Who we are
Eyewitnesses and human rights defenders founded OpenArchive in 2015 to develop secure, responsive archiving and verification tools and resources to protect history’s first responders who capture critical evidentiary media on their phones. OpenArchive is fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit Media Alliance.
Get Involved
Together, we can preserve truth to power!
