News & Events

On Monday 1^st December (week 9), 4-5pm in SO.11 we welcome Professor Yvonne McDermott Rees, Professor of Law, and Dr Maryanne Brassil, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, at Swansea University, who will speak about “Trust in User-Generated Evidence: Insights from the ECR-funded TRUE ProjectLink opens in a new window.” This will be followed by aQ&A. 

Abstract: Information recorded by ordinary citizens on personal devices plays an increasingly important role in accountability processes. Across the world, advances in mobile phone technology and internet access mean that millions of important photographs and videos depicting mass human rights violations have been, and will continue to be, created and shared online. Yet, at the same time, the public is increasingly confronted with examples of deepfakes and synthetic media, which are only likely to become more widespread, advanced, and difficult to detect as the technology progresses. Much of the literature to date has expressed a concern that the rise in deepfakes will lead to mass mistrust in user-generated evidence, and that this in turn will decrease its epistemic value in legal proceedings and human rights accountability processes. This may well be the case, but no study has yet empirically tested that assumption. This lecture outlines some of the key findings to date from the TRUE project, a large multi-disciplinary project, which seeks to address this important evidence gap.

Trust in User-Generated Evidence flyerLink opens in a new window