Mobil-Eyes Us Pilot: Maximizing the power of live video and activist networks during the Olympics
We ran a small-scale pilot of the Mobil-Eyes Us initiative during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. You can learn more about what we did and experience some of the livestreams via this update blog we published.
Our pilot in Rio involved collaboration with frontline activists in communities affected by human rights violations to share a series of live-streams and related opportunities for supporters and watching ‘distant witnesses’ to experience directly what is happening, support actions around human rights, and move from being viewers to active witnesses taking action in support of frontline communities.
Our first livestreams with opportunities to act took place in Vila Autódromo (a community evicted in the shadow of the Olympic Media Center) and in Favela Penha facing militarization and evictions to build transport links. We also streamed from the community of Favela da Skol, a community evicted almost six years ago, still not re-housed and now cut-off from housing subsidies as Rio’s city finances collapse. And on the final full-day of the Olympics we streamed from a protest at the heart of the Olympic Boulevard.
We’re now analyzing our experiences during this pilot and planning for the next stages in the project. We’ll be sharing more opportunities to be a ‘distant witness’ and be alerted to live-streams and relevant opportunities to act.
Also take this opportunity to look at our WITNESS Media Lab project curating alternative social justice livestreams from Rio during the Summer Olympics.