Civic Complaint Bot

Twitter has a storied history of taking on the duty of protecting its users via access to crucial information. A recent example can be found in Twitter’s labels and warning messages which specifically limit the spread of misinformation on COVID-19. According to a recent blog post from Twitter’s Product Blog, these labels link to a Twitter-curated page or external trusted source containing additional information on the claims made within the Tweet.

In the year 2020, COVID-19 is unfortunately not the only crisis afflicting people across the globe. In both the United States and Nigeria, specifically, social movements seeking to end extrajudicial violence at the hands of law enforcement have gained widespread popularity, with American activists taking aim at police squads, and Nigeran ones focusing on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). These respective movements represent massive strides for human rights, and we’re seeking to leverage both Twitter’s platform and existing government channels to protect potential victims of these abuses.

As an intervention, we have programmed a bot that prompts users on Twitter claiming to have experienced civic rights abuses at the hands of law enforcement to seamlessly lodge a formal complaint regarding the incident.

Built With

• google-cloud
• google-web-speech-api
• maps
• tweepy