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Driving Social Impact Through Web Intelligence: "Project 4β" Welcomes Global Witness

Gabija Birgile

2024-05-162 min read

We are pleased to announce a new "Project 4β" partnership with “Global Witness” – an independent, non-profit organization that investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption, and associated environmental and human rights abuses.

The partnership marks 4β's commitment to making public web intelligence insights accessible to all, enabling critical research questions and missions at the scale of global web data, and promoting ethical web scraping.

About Global Witness

For over 25 years, Global Witness has investigated and exposed environmental and human rights abuses in the oil, gas, mining, and timber sectors and tracked ill-gotten money and influence through the global financial and political system. Today, Global Witness continues to focus on abusive actors, misuse of power, and financial flows but has turned our focus on some of the most urgent issues facing humanity: the climate emergency and attacks on civic space.

The goal of the Global Witness organization is a more sustainable, just, and equal planet. The organization wants forests and biodiversity to thrive, fossil fuels to stay in the ground and corporations to prioritise the interests of people and the planet.

Our partnership with Global Witness highlights the critical role of public web data collection solutions in diverse fields, from environmental advocacy to human rights and political research. We're excited to see how our Global Witness utilises our tools to drive meaningful change and contribute to a better tomorrow.

Julius Černiauskas, CEO of Oxylabs

Web scraping for environmental monitoring

Global Witness Investigations are known for their meticulous attention to detail. They use an ever-evolving variety of techniques, including undercover filming, scraping, and analyzing open-source and leaked data sets. For instance, in 2020, they conducted their most ambitious data-driven investigation to date, uncovering the illegal deforestation linked to Brazil's biggest beef companies.

Through this collaboration with "4β," the organization receives complimentary access to Oxylabs' cutting-edge web scraping solutions to elevate environmental monitoring and research.

Responsible and ethical web scraping is an important part of Global Witness's data investigations to uncover corruption at the heart of the climate crisis. We appreciate that “Project 4β” will give us access to Oxylabs products that will facilitate our search for publicly available information about the activities of fossil fuel representatives.

Dr. Emily Clough, Head of Data Investigations at Global Witness

Invitation to join 4β

"Project 4β" has already forged partnerships with dozens of organisations, including Bellingcat, the Environmental Protection Department of Lithuania, and members from academic institutions, such as the University of Edinburgh and Birmingham City University, to name a few.

We extend our invitation to academia, researchers, NGOs and other organizations working towards public good to join the pro bono program by filling a form or via 4beta@oxylabs.io and get free access to Oxylabs' know-how and robust web intelligence collection solutions.

About the author

Gabija Birgile

Senior PR Manager

Gabija Birgile is a Senior PR Manager at Oxylabs. After working in a PR agency and juggling various projects for quite some time, she wanted to try a role in the tech industry. Making a positive impact with her work was always on top of her mind, so managing "Project 4β" pro bono partnerships now definitely does the job. If you have a project in mind, drop her a message at 4beta@oxylabs.io.

Learn more about Gabija Birgile

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