Systemic Altruism
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Justice & public goodsPreliminary editorial review

Bellingcat

The Dutch nonprofit foundation combines investigations with training and tools for journalists and rights groups. Auto Archiver is the scoped software example; preserved public material does not by itself establish a true claim or legally admissible evidence.

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Systemic Altruism practice potential: 68–78/100
90% of weighted axes reviewed. A mechanism hypothesis, not proven effectiveness or a donation recommendation.

Who this work enables

Tools & support for charities: Shared investigative guidance and Auto Archiver can help rights groups and journalists avoid rebuilding evidence-preservation workflows.

Open-source evidence · license checked

  • Auto Archiver — MIT license file. Organization’s role: maintainer.
    Inspected the MIT grant naming Stichting Bellingcat, current README and non-archived repository. This does not grant rights to archived content or bypass platform controls; hosting, accounts, privacy, factual verification and forensic admissibility remain separate. License-file snapshot: 057b55a8290cb4513315137996586c076dfb2e14.

License checked 2026-10-27. This is not a security audit, proof of current support or effectiveness, or a promise of free hosting. A sponsor or steward is not necessarily the sole developer. Unchecked profiles are not evidence of closed code. No extra score points are added.

Humanity’s Checklist source match

Gatekeepers · Coordination — editorial, partial alignment.

Shared verification and preservation capacity can reduce information gatekeeping and coordinate investigative work. This partial mapping does not establish truthful conclusions, ethical use or community decision power.

Explicit checklist adoption: not verified. A mechanism match is not an affiliation, endorsement, evidence of effectiveness or a scoring bonus. Read the practice.

Focus classification: 2026-10-27. Based on the organization’s dated official sources below; earlier axis-review dates are unchanged.

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The proposed pathway

Share investigative methods and reusable evidence-preservation tooling

Six dimensions, with rationale

Structural depth

3 / 4

Shared investigation and preservation capacity can change information asymmetries and accountability barriers rather than publish only one report.

Institutional reach

3 / 4

Reusable tools and training can enable multiple journalists and rights organizations, although access, language and political context constrain reach.

Durability

2 / 4

Methods and preserved records can persist, but source platforms change and safe curation, verification and maintenance require continued work.

Scalability

4 / 4

Common archiving software and methods can reduce repeated development work, while contextual verification and safeguarding remain skilled labor.

Funding additionality

Unreviewed

No current marginal tool-maintenance or training bottleneck, donor substitution or counterfactual investigative contribution was audited.

Community agency

Unreviewed

Volunteer investigation and public methods do not establish affected subjects’ or communities’ binding rights over research agendas and publication decisions.

Evidence and selection

Organization reported; current primary mechanism sources inspected; named repository and license file checked

Illustrative inclusion to examine this mechanism. Inclusion is not an external recommendation or a verified comparative ranking.

A testable next question

Do rights and journalism teams using supported archiving tools and methods preserve more useful, contestable evidence than existing workflows, without increasing privacy, exposure, harassment or false-confidence harms?

Review confidence: Moderate for documented design; low for systemic attribution. Stichting Bellingcat’s nonprofit methods, training and tool model, with Auto Archiver as the named example; not a second US-entity count or an endorsement of every investigation.

What remains uncertain

The general-information page identifies Stichting Bellingcat, Dutch KvK 72136030, and a separate US entity, not two separately counted assessments. MIT applies to Auto Archiver code, not third-party content, accounts or platform terms. The originating article is dated 2022 and is paired with the current inspected repository; it explicitly notes that stored hashes alone may not satisfy forensic requirements. No admissibility, security, factual-accuracy or safeguarding audit occurred. Archiving can expose victims, intensify harassment or preserve harmful material; open-source research is not automatically open-source software.

Sources to inspect

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Axis review: 2026-10-27 · weighting method v0.2 (2026-10-26) · Method, conflicts and coverage