Trust in User-generated Evidence: Analysing the Impact of Deepfakes on Accountability Processes for Human Rights Violations (TRUE)

用户生成的证据——定义为普通公民记录并用于法律裁决的信息——在问责过程中发挥着越来越重要的作用。在世界各地，移动电话技术的进步和越来越多的互联网接入意味着，数百万描绘大规模侵犯人权行为的重要照片和视频已经并将继续在网上被创作和分享。瑞典、德国、荷兰和国际刑事法院等国的大规模暴行审判已经使用了这类证据，联合国人权理事会授权的调查委员会、实况调查团和调查也使用了这类证据。然而，与此同时，公众越来越多地面对深度伪造的例子——使用机器学习技术创建的超现实图像、视频或录音——随着技术的进步，这些例子只会变得越来越先进，越来越难以检测。这两项进展带来了一个重要难题：对深度造假的认知是否导致了对用户生成证据的不信任？如果是这样，这对这些证据在未来人权问责进程中的作用意味着什么？迄今为止，许多文献都表达了一种担忧，即深度造假的增加将导致对用户生成证据的大规模不信任，这反过来又会降低其在法律诉讼中的认知价值。这很可能是事实，但尚未有研究证实这一假设。这是一个迫切需要解决的重大证据差距。通过法律、心理学和语言学交叉的创新跨学科方法，这一开创性项目将在使用非人道权利问责程序的具体背景下，首次系统地阐述对用户生成证据的信任。

User-generated evidence - defined as information recorded by an ordinary citizen and used in legal adjudication - plays anincreasingly important role in accountability processes. Across the world, advances in mobile phone technology and increasinginternet access mean that millions of important photographs and videos depicting mass human rights violations have been, and willcontinue to be, created and shared online. Mass atrocity trials in Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, and the International CriminalCourt, amongst others, have already utilised this kind of evidence, as have UN Human Rights Council-mandated commissions ofinquiry, fact-finding missions, and investigations. Yet, at the same time, the public is increasingly confronted with examples ofdeepfakes - hyper-realistic images, videos, or audio recordings created using machine learning technology - which are only likely tobecome more advanced and difficult to detect as the technology progresses. These two developments pose an importantconundrum: have perceptions of deepfakes led to a mistrust in user-generated evidence? And if so, what does that mean for the roleof such evidence in future human rights accountability processes? Much of the literature to date has expressed a concern that the risein deepfakes will lead to mass mistrust in user-generated evidence, and that this in turn will decrease its epistemic value in legalproceedings. This may well be the case, but no study has yet tested that assumption. This is a major evidence gap that urgently needsto be addressed. Through an innovative interdisciplinary methodology at the intersection of law, psychology, and linguistics, thispioneering project will develop the first systematic account of trust in user-generated evidence, in the specific context of its use inhuman rights accountability processes.