About Hadi Al Khatib
Founder and Managing Director at Mnemonic
Hadi Al Khatib is the Founder and Managing Director of Mnemonic and co-founder of the Syrian Archive, dedicated to preserving open-source digital evidence of human rights abuses, particularly in Syria, for accountability and justice. His work emphasizes open-source investigations (OSINT) as a tool for activism, judicial processes, and countering narrative erasure by authoritarian regimes and platforms. Blending entrepreneurship with social impact, he advocates for robust policies on synthetic media and digital preservation to protect human rights defenders.
Digital Preservation and Archiving for Accountability
Hadi Al Khatib co-founded the Syrian Archive in 2014 with Jeff Deutch to systematically collect, preserve, and verify user-generated content documenting war crimes in Syria.[8][12] This effort addresses the disappearance of vital evidence from platforms like YouTube,[9] marking a decade of safeguarding narratives against erasure.[12] Mnemonic, under his leadership, extends this to broader human rights contexts, such as Sudanese revolutions broadcast online.[6]
Open-Source Investigations (OSINT) and Judicial Applications
Al Khatib promotes OSINT for legal accountability, authoring guides like 'Evaluating Digital Open Source Imagery' to assist judges in assessing evidence.[1] He celebrated the French Court of Appeal's validation of an arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad based on such evidence, calling it a milestone for survivors.[3] His work critiques misuse of OSINT against human rights while highlighting its potential.[5]
Platform Policies and Synthetic Media
Collaborating with WITNESS, Al Khatib co-authored op-eds urging Twitter and Facebook to refine policies on synthetic media without harming activists.[2][10] He warns that vague rules risk conflating human rights content with propaganda, exacerbating evidence loss since 2017.[9][10]
Activism, Narrative Control, and Global Impact
Al Khatib views archiving as activism, fostering collaborations with reporters and rights groups.[8] He participated in events like RightsCon 2021 on Sudanese documentation[6] and TED Fellows (2026 class),[11] while contributing to academic works on Arab digital archives and mediated memories.[4] Discussions with Middle East Eye cover a decade of Syrian war crimes documentation.[7]
Entrepreneurship and Social Impact
As Founder and Managing Director of Mnemonic, Al Khatib drives non-profit innovation in digital evidence preservation, using open-source tools for global accountability, including GIJN discussions on archival journalism.[13]
Digital Evidence Preservation
Central focus on archiving open-source content to prevent loss and enable justice.
OSINT for Judicial Accountability
Advocates OSINT tools and guides for courts to evaluate digital imagery.
Platform Policy Critique
Pushes for balanced tech policies protecting activists from content removal.
Archiving as Activism
Positions archives as tools for narrative control and social movements.
Global Human Rights Documentation
Extends Syrian focus to broader contexts like Sudan and Arab archives.
Every entry that fed the multi-agent compile above. Inline citation markers in the wiki text (like [1], [2]) are not yet individually linked to specific sources — this is the full set of sources the compile considered.
- TOD #35: The Arab Archive: Mediated Memories and Digital Flowsarticle · 2026-04-14
- Open Source Investigation against human rights… | Prototype Fundarticle · 2026-04-14
- Mnemonic Taking Part at RightsCon 2021article · 2026-04-14
- Hadi al-Khatib, founder of the Syrian Archive, spoke to Middle East ...article · 2026-04-14
- Hadi Al Khatib - TED Blogarticle · 2026-04-14
- Muckraking the Past: Using Archives to Seek Accountability - Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN)news_article · 2026-04-14