In 2024, we exposed how digital IDs in Africa failed to deliver promised democratic and development boost, while making fortunes for tech vendors. Our investigation in Congo on the deal with French technology company Idemia, was widely covered by the Congolese press and picked up by news influencers. Congo’s anti-corruption watchdog reacted publicly (Parts 1, 2, 3) and international scholar-experts on biometrics endorsed and circulated the investigation. The deal’s mastermind, Samba Bathily, was not pleased, going so far as to give a long interview claiming we’d coordinated a campaign against him. Just three days after the publication of our story into the spiralling costs of a biometric mega-deal rife with corruption in the DRC, the contract was cancelled.
Impact
We want to make a difference for the people most affected by the topics we cover.
Telling powerful stories is just the beginning. Our responsibility extends beyond the story to ensuring that vital information reaches changemakers and the people most directly harmed by injustice. Our work can lead to swift results from court cases to resignations, it can also have slow-burn impact from public campaigns to political debates or community actions.
None of it can happen alone. Collaboration is at the heart of our model and we partner with diverse actors to make progress on the issues that we cover.
Journalism is a public service, and the impact we make is shared—with the people and movements that use it to inform change.
Impact Highlights
Biometrics Deals
Impact Highlights
Afghans Left Behind
Hundreds of Afghans who served in special forces units that were funded, recruited and paid by the British had been denied relocation to the UK, despite compelling evidence of their service with the UK. As part of our Left Behind Series, we revealed that because of the British Government’s failure to come true to their promise to bring these Afghans to safety, dozens were tortured or murdered by the Taliban.
Nearly a year after exposing the abandonment of Afghan commandos trained by UK special forces, the UK government admitted it was wrong, reversed its stance and began relocating members of the ‘Triples’ unit into the country. This seachange wouldn’t have been possible without campaigners who kept the story alive in the halls of power and legal advocates who supported asylum applicants.
LEFT BEHIND SERIES
Impact Highlights
Frontex
Our investigations into abuses at the EU’s borders have frequently led us to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. Exposés by our Borders Newsroom have triggered the agency director’s resignation, inquiries by Europe’s anti-fraud agency and hearings by the LIBE Committee where Lighthouse was called to provide evidence. Together with our partners, we continue to shine a light on what the European Parliament has referred to as Frontex’s “serious misconduct” to sustain media coverage for long enough to exert real pressure.
Lighthouse testified in the European Parliament at a LIBE Committee hearing with Frontex about its sharing coordinates of migrant boats with the Libyan Coast Guard and Eastern Libyan militia groups following our 2 investigations (Tariq Bin Zeyad and 2,200 Emails) which made waves in the European Parliament.
Impact Highlights
Poison PR
US taxpayers funded a covert campaign to downplay the risks of pesticides and discredit environmentalists in Africa, Europe, and North America. We revealed that public money went to a PR firm ‘v-fluence’ to build profiles on hundreds of scientists, campaigners and writers, whilst coordinating with government officials, to counter global resistance to pesticides.
Just 4 months after our investigation, v-Fluence announced that it had removed the profiles of scientists and activists from its Bonus Eventus website. Both the USDA and pesticide industry trade group CropLife said that it would review contracts in place with v-Fluence. And in the months following our reporting, the firm also reportedly laid off dozens of employees after industry clients cancelled their contracts with the firm.
Impact Highlights
Suspicion Machines
After our Suspicion Machines Series found evidence of bias in an algorithm used to predict welfare fraud, Rotterdam city authorities abandoned their plans to build a new algorithm to replace the one we took apart. Our investigation into a similar French risk-profiling algorithm, led to MPs calling for a parliamentary inquiry into its deployment and over 30 NGOs signed an open letter to the French Prime Minister to call for a stop to its use.
SUSPICION MACHINES SERIES
Impact Highlights
Spyware Accountability
Our work on telecom network exploitation has helped choke off access to phone networks by commercial surveillance actors. Findings from our Flight of the Predator investigation contributed to the sanctioning of bad actors by the US Office of Foreign Asset Control. Our Ghost in the Network investigation led to a recommendation by the GSMA that its members cut off Andreas Fink’s access. Our exposure of Italian geolocation firm Tykelab led to a sudden decrease in traffic observed from it.