Through courses, training, and projects, law students in UCLA Law's Digital Investigations Lab learn vital digital investigation techniques, including identifying, documenting and verifying digital evidence of international law violations, threats to our env

Digital Investigations Reports

Disappearances, Deaths, and Denials in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This report uses open source material to demonstrate multiple human rights violations committed by Iranian security forces during the first two months of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement, as well as the rampant information suppression carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Use of Open Source Investigation Methods in Tracking Environmental Harms

In partnership with the UC Digital Investigations Network, this practitioner-centered report shows how open source investigation methods can be used to document environmental harms globally. The report is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Indigenous Land Defenders of Brazil: In Memoriam (2019-2022)

This report uses open source information to map the threats Indigenous land defenders face as they stand up to extractivists seeking to exploit their land in Brazil. It profiles thirteen Indigenous leaders and land defenders killed there between 2019-2022. The report is also available in Portuguese.

Disinformation and Decentralization

This report examines how viral videos helped spread election denialism in Arizona’s 2022 midterm election.

UC Student Research Team Monitors 2022 Midterm Elections for Voter Suppression and Misinformation

Our report details the process and open-source tools and techniques that student research team used to document and investigation disinformation narratives, which may serve as a model for future election monitoring.

Summary List of Election Deniers and Skeptics Elected to Office During the 2022 U.S. Midterms

This report provides the most comprehensive, aggregated list of all election skeptics and deniers elected throughout the U.S. in the 2022 midterms. This will provide a useful research tool for those wanting to understand how far conspiracy theories have infiltrated elected offices.

Social Media, Content Moderation, and International Human Rights Law: The Example of the Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh Conflict

This report contains several case studies of online hate speech and disinformation related to the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Fall of 2020. It analyzes the relationship between international human rights law and content moderation by social media companies.

The University of California Digital Investigations Network (UCDIN) is a research consortium that brings together Digital Investigation Labs across three campuses - UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and UCLA - training diverse and interdisciplinary cohorts of students in digital open source investigation methodologies to monitor, document, and seek accountability for human rights crises in the United States and around the world. Co-founded in 2020 by PI Sylvanna Falćon (UCSC), Alexa Koenig (UC Berkeley) and Jess Peake (UCLA), the UC Network is training and mentoring the next generation of investigators on how to research and document grave social injustices using freely available information online, and drawing from students’ interdisciplinary training in the humanities, humanistic social sciences, journalism, and the law, across the three campuses. This unparalleled, collaborative learning experience in an academic setting equips students with an increasingly necessary skill set in the contemporary, interconnected workforce and positions them competitively for jobs in law, the tech industry, journalism, human rights advocacy, investigations and justice fields. You can find more information about UCDIN here.