Please describe your proposed solution
Executive Summary
DJI repurposes blockchain technology to provide a hybrid solution for safe and decentralised disclosure governance as well as fact-checking and collective risk assessment tool/platform. Seeking funding for Phase 1;
- A feasibility study;
- To build and test an MVP platform for disclosures;
- To establish a decentralised governance and growth structure;
- To pilot in Afghanistan within an existing network of journalists
The Why: What is the Problem?
“I spent four years working undercover as a journalist in Iran, and another three years after that providing guidance to journalists in Afghanistan. I interact with whistleblowers in my current job, and I’m always struggling to find a way to communicate with them securely, and also to communicate securely with colleagues while working to verify and edit the information. The second thing is that, as an individual or a tiny news organization, I don’t always feel 100% confident publishing sensitive information once it is disclosed, because I do not always have the best knowledge of how to fact-check it. I cannot turn to colleagues or bigger media organizations for help without exposing the source or risking an untimely leak of the information itself.”
Margherita H, Founder, Digital Journalism Institute, Journalist/Editor
The problem in a nutshell:
- There is no collective, decentralised fact-checking platform where investigative journalists, lawyers and activists can decide together how to work with disclosures from repressive media environments and how to use their experience to assess the strength of sources. For existing whistleblower platforms, decision-making and management is not collective and decentralised to ensure long-term transparency and trust. There is no tool for fact-checkers and transparency advocates to collectively make decisions about how disclosures are sourced, verified and governed
- Investigative journalists and transparency advocates do not have a platform to communicate safely with whistleblowers and to assess, collaborate on and publish key disclosures from whistleblowers worldwide
- Trust is the biggest issue in information today
- Working on sensitive stories along or as part of a small mechanism can be daunting, overwhelming and dangerous
- Few whistleblower platforms deploy the opportunities for anonymity, governance and safe communication afforded by cheap and fast blockchain technology
- Storing sensitive data on centralised servers is dangerous
- Handling large data dumps in multiple languages can be daunting for a single journalist and can mean stories are abandoned or overlooked
THE SOLUTION
- The Decentralised Journalism Institute (DJI) is a decentralized whistleblowing platform, data storage and governance mechanism for activists and journalists to verify whistleblower disclosures, media stories or data dumps.The USP is the use of blockchain smart contracts for collective governance and administration, multi-signatures to approve disclosures and a DAO for governance. DAO community and multi-sig tools built and governed on summon.io and Yoroi
- The DAO initially brings together six experienced and ‘vetted’ investigative journalists who all trust each other and bring networks and experience in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America. More journalists, lawyers, advocates, media outlets, academics, whistleblowers and supporters can join with time
- The Decentralised Journalism Institute (DJI) is run as a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO). The DAO will have six founding members, all investigative journalists from around the world. Each member will be able to vote on acceptance and vetting of new DAO members, how to proceed with all Initial Reports on Disclosures, and other key governance decisions. Membership can scale.
- DJI is governed by a decentralized DAO structure on Cardano. Core members are vetted global editors, journalists, whistleblowing specialists and media lawyers who collectively constitute the verification department and perform management and governance duties.
- Organisations with any fact-checking need could use DJI’s open source platform to collectively assess and verify data
- All key interactions between Foundation/User and Foundation DAO members on the blockchain will need to be approved by the user with their wallet (e.g. uploads, messages, data transfers etc). This avoids reliance on any sms/mobile networks, reducing the option of disclosures being tracked or monitored and thus strengthening their confidence in the disclosure mechanism’s security apparatus
THE PROJECT
We seek to create a low-profile DAO of investigative journalists who source and share disclosures via the DJI platform. The DAO is run by journalists in a decentralised governance structure using voting rights on blockchain. DJI adds an added layer of security and decentralisation to any existing ‘whistleblower platforms’ by ensuring all data and communication transfers need to be approved by the recipient’s wallet signature. This ensures that malicious forces, hackers or totalitarian state agents cannot access sensitive information and protects the data, which is stored on a decentralised network.
Process For Sources/Disclosers: A DAO member communicates with a source, preferably offline. He/she then receives a disclosure via ToR – a customised, self-deleting, VPN-powered Global Leaks app or equivalent. The app has a plugin to a pre-funded wallet. Any files added to the app by the source are automatically added to a new batch on a decentralised server. The source must sign transactions with the app. The source can add any relevant info or additional docs to the batch. After finishing the upload, all documents are deleted on the source’s phone, including the app. Should the source want to add more detail, they will have to reinstall the app.
All Communications: A parallel messenger, featuring additional encryption and security considerations, will be considered by the founding team. The architecture could be based on Signal and/or Tox and/or Briar and/or Ricochet Refresh, although accounts would be linked to a blockchain wallet and not a phone number to ensure adequate anonymity and security.
Process For the DAO/Foundation/Journalists:
STEP1: Data Review
The Foundation is notified of a New Batch. If data is attached, the rotating Foundation President assigns an Initial Report to a DAO member. The first step after receiving the disclosure is for a DAO member to write the Initial Report. Initial Reports are assigned on a revolving basis to each DAO member to produce. If a DAO member does not understand the language of the disclosure, then responsibilities for the Initial Report are reassigned to the next DAO member, until a native language speaker is found. If a native speaker cannot be found, the disclosure is rejected.
This is a pre-designed template in which the DAO member:
· Summarises the disclosure in English for other DAO members
· Raises any doubts, concerns or questions about the material
· Highlights DAO members’ first observations, thorough cross-checking, experience or intuition
· Identifies any key steps or open questions for further fact-checking
STEP 2: The Vote
DAO members are then invited to vote on the Initial Report. If DAO members vote against sharing the material with a preferred media partner, then the disclosure ends there. If they approve sharing, then a preferred media partner is contacted to conduct further fact-checking and to arrange publication. AT NO POINT is the preferred media partner placed in touch with the whistleblower.
THE PILOT
DJI will first conduct an in depth feasibility study in Afghanistan and Iran. This Pilot Project will ensure we can test, revise and strengthen the tech in two totalitarian states. Margherita and Aryan have extensive networks in both countries. Journalists from within these networks will initially source disclosures.