RiiS
See what’s happening worldwide through people on the ground
26 followers
See what’s happening worldwide through people on the ground
26 followers
RiiS helps people understand what is happening around the world through first-hand photos, videos and reports shared by people who are there. Explore events on an interactive map, follow situations through updates, and help assess the reliability of reports through community verification. Contributors may have the opportunity to earn money by licensing selected content to media organizations under agreed terms. RiiS is in public beta and improving through user feedback.
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Hi Product Hunt! I’m Marina, the founder of RiiS 👋
After almost ten months of building RiiS, I’m finally launching it here. It’s my first app and my first Product Hunt launch, so I’m very excited — and honestly, a little nervous.
The idea for RiiS came during the devastating floods in Valencia, Spain. I saw all kinds of unverified claims on social media, including posts saying that thousands had died, and it was hard to know what was true. With AI making photos and videos easier to fake, that problem is only getting worse.
That experience led me to build RiiS — a citizen journalism app for discovering first-hand photos, videos and reports shared by people on the ground.
When a photo or video is captured directly in RiiS, its location, date and time are recorded. Users can follow stories as they develop, add context or supporting evidence, and vote Reliable or Unreliable to help the community understand the situation better.
RiiS is currently in public beta, and I’ve built most of it myself. I’d genuinely like to know whether people would find it useful and how it should develop from here.
You can try RiiS on the App Store or Google Play.
I’d especially love to know:
— Would you use RiiS to discover what is happening locally or worldwide?
— What would help you trust a report on RiiS?
— What would encourage you to share something you witnessed?
Please take a look and let me know what you think — what works, what feels unclear or what you would change.
I’ll be here throughout the day and happy to answer any questions.
Thank you for being part of my first launch!
A very interesting project. Why would someone share what they witness on RiiS instead of only posting it on the social media platforms they already use?
@paqui_roman thank you, Paqui! They don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other — they can share on both.
On social media, important eyewitness content can quickly get lost among unrelated posts or only reach existing followers. On RiiS, it is placed in context through location, date and time, can be followed through updates, and the community can assess its reliability. This helps it reach people who are specifically trying to understand what is happening in that place.
We also want RiiS reporters to gain recognition for their contributions and, in the future, have opportunities for their content to reach the media.
Can someone submit important content without revealing their identity publicly?
@new_user___25720263f760af22b88a6b3 Thanks for asking! Yes, users can submit content as “Confidential RiiS,” which sends it privately to our team for review. If we decide to publish it, it appears under “RiiS Reporter,” without revealing the contributor’s identity publicly.
@marina_neparidze thanks, interesting. One more question: how do you protect people who report sensitive situations?
@new_user___25720263f760af22b88a6b3 We protect contributors by separating their identity from the content that may be published. Sensitive submissions are sent privately to the RiiS team and are never published automatically. We review them first, and if the content is published, it appears under “RiiS Reporter” — not under the contributor’s name or profile.
How are you going to fight ai generated videos?
@natalia_kryukova I don’t believe AI detectors alone can solve it, so RiiS uses several signals. Content captured directly in the app records its location, date and time and is clearly distinguished from gallery uploads. The community can also add supporting evidence, provide context and flag a report as unreliable.
As RiiS develops, I plan to add automated manipulation detection and stronger content-provenance tools. No system can guarantee 100% certainty, but the goal is to make the available evidence visible instead of asking people to trust a single label.
@marina_neparidze For me, location and time are helpful, but I’d also want to know if other people nearby confirmed the report. Is that possible in RiiS?
@natalia_kryukova That’s something I plan to add. When a new report is posted, nearby users who have opted in could receive a notification asking them to check or confirm it. Would that help you trust the report?
@natalia_kryukova @marina_neparidze true, ai can detect 80-88%, so community from the same area could verify the video
very interesting! I will look up your app and give you my feedback. If your app is able to check location and time—which is often an issue with videos we watch on social media—that would be a great support for real news searches. do you have a web version available as well?
@nargiz_mustafayeva
Yes, the web version is design for future core reporters and relevant media outlets. you can look up at www.riisapp.com
@marina_neparidze hi! I checked your app, find some interesting videos, but could not understand how comes that percentage of video reliability? can you explain it?
@marina_neparidze and one more thing is not clear for me: the difference between videos downloaded from camera and gallery?
@nargiz_mustafayeva If you record a video directly in Riis, the app records where and when it was captured and it appears on the map. A gallery upload doesn’t have the same verification so it appears only in the feed.