Stringer Safety is a safety companion for journalists working in high-risk environments. It won 1st place at the AI Hack for Freedom hackathon organized by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and Bitcoin Park.
I worked on it with Alex Lewin, Anjan Sundaram, asraentr0py, sahilc0, and imyjimmy.
The core idea is simple: when a journalist is under pressure, there is no time to decide who to contact, what context to share, and how each person in the network can help.
What it does
- builds a trusted network of journalists, fixers, officials, embassy contacts, and family
- chronicles field updates so the support network has context before something goes wrong
- triggers a one-touch SOS that sends the right safety context to the right people
- uses Maple, HRF’s encrypted AI tool, to suggest response actions in moments of danger
- points toward end-to-end encrypted location sharing and messaging as the product matures
Why it matters
Frontline and freelance reporters often need to coordinate safety across countries, time zones, and fragmented communication apps. Stringer Safety compresses that operational burden into a tool designed for the moment when seconds matter.
The current public site also makes clear that this is not just a panic button. It is a broader safety workflow: prepare the network in advance, build context during the assignment, and make emergency escalation immediate when something goes wrong.
The project is now being developed in partnership with The Stringer Foundation.
Links
Website HRF Winners Announcement Alex Lewin Thread My Note on Winning the Hackathon