Terrorism & Extremism

Lawfare Daily: Prosecuting the Sahel's War Influencers with Lindsay Freeman

Tyler McBrien, Lindsay Freeman
Monday, June 30, 2025, 9:00 AM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Lindsay Freeman, Director of Technology, Law & Policy at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, to discuss her recent Lawfare article, “War Crimes for Fun and Profit.” They talk about how and why so-called war influencers linked to private military companies such as the Wagner Group in the Sahel are posting “conflict content” online. They also address why this graphic and gory content, which often amounts to self-incriminating evidence of war crimes, has led to so little accountability. And finally, they discuss efforts to close that impunity gap, including an Article 15 submission that Freeman and her team at the Human Rights Center sent to the International Criminal Court last fall. 

Content Warning: This episode contains depictions of graphic violence. Listener discretion is advised.

 

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Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare. He previously worked as an editor with the Council on Foreign Relations and a Princeton in Africa Fellow with Equal Education in South Africa, and holds an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.
Lindsay Freeman is the Director of Technology, Law & Policy at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. She specializes in international criminal and humanitarian law with a focus on digital evidence and investigations. Freeman led the drafting of the United Nation’s Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations and runs a team building cyber war crimes cases. She previously worked for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
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