A/HRC/29/37 violations, which can foster accountability, exploring the challenges faced, including the challenge of verification. Finally, the Special Rapporteur will consider the extent to which digital evidence is currently used within parts of the international human rights machinery. B. Promotion and advocacy 44. Greater capabilities for information sharing and communication present obvious and now widely used opportunities to disseminate information about human rights, either generally, as education, or as more focused advocacy in support of legislative or policy changes, or calling for investigation or accountability concerning individual cases. Human rights organizations can supplement traditional communication strategies using mainstream media, by targeting the public directly. 45. Websites, for example, are used by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as States, to make information about human rights norms or legal standards available to the widest possible audience. In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur underlined the importance of clear and publicly available legal frameworks for preventing arbitrary killings through the use of force or the application of the death penalty (A/HRC/26/36 and A/67/275).9 ICTs clearly enable States to be more transparent towards their populations and the international community. 46. In addition to providing information digitally, many human rights organizations have developed expertise in using social media quickly and directly to engage members of the public. ICTs may create new educational opportunities that foster environments supportive of human rights. In Kenya, the PeaceTXT initiative sent peace-promoting text messages to registered subscribers with the aim of de-escalating potential conflicts. Elsewhere, NGOs have used secret filming to expose extreme cases of bigotry and harassment in order to sensitize public.10 47. Digital ICTs can thus facilitate the widespread visibility of human rights, at least among those connected through social media. Applications such as AiCandle or Pocket Protest allow users to sign petitions, write e-mails or receive human rights information using their mobile or smartphones and are particularly useful for urgent mobilizations.11 Messages can also be amplified using platforms such as Thunderclap. Ultimately, such strategies can succeed in getting a case or issue on the public agenda. 12 48. Questions remain as to whether these affordances are markedly changing advocacy dynamics for the better. Campaigns compete for attention in an ever-proliferating information context and are accessible — at least in the first instance — only to the digitally literate.13 Meanwhile, the brevity of the messages and real-time culture of Twitter may preclude or simplify coverage of complicated situations and the drivers of virality can 9 10 11 12 13 8 See also www.use-of-force.info. Cynthia Romero, “What next? The quest to protect journalists and human rights defenders in a digital world”, conference report, Freedom House, Mexico City, (February 2014), https://freedomhouse.org/ sites/default/files/What%27s%20Next%20-%20The%20Quest%20to%20Protect%20 Journalists%20and%20Human%20Rights%20Defenders%20in%20a%20Digital%20World.pdf. See Amnesty International UK, “What is pocket protest?” (June 2013), www.amnesty.org.uk/whatpocket-protest. See Jiva Manske “Case studies: concrete examples of compelling and strategic use of social media��, New Tactics in Human Rights (9 May 2013), https://www.newtactics.org/comment/6124. Thrall, Stecula and Sweet, “May we have your attention please?” (see footnote 7).