C4ADS

05/27/2026

NEW: As Beijing accelerates efforts to build a “digital China” and increases the development of data centers, new C4ADS analysis shows that this infrastructure — used to expand surveillance capabilities in the Uyghur region — relies heavily on a combination of domestic and Western tech (including from companies like Dell, Intel, and Nvidia).

Hardwired Repression explores how data centers support the large-scale processing of biometric data, communications records, and behavioral monitoring, while examining the regulatory implications surrounding export controls and systematic monitoring linked to surveillance infrastructure in the Uyghur region.

Read the report 👇

Data centers are an essential component of China's expansive mass surveillance system in the Uyghur region, quietly processing biometric and behavioral data to target ethnic minorities — yet they remain the least scrutinized component of this digital architecture, even as compatibility with Americ...

05/08/2026

Belarus has quietly become a key player in Russian arms production, but only half of the network powering that dynamic has been sanctioned.

A new investigation from our partner the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) found that 58 Belarusian enterprises supplied 41 Russian arms manufacturers with more than $1.2 billion in goods. Only 29 of those 58 suppliers face Western sanctions.

Every unsanctioned supplier represents a gap in accountability, continuing to cost lives.

Read more👇

C4ADS partner the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) finds 58 Belarusian enterprises supplied Russian arms manufacturers with over $1.2 billion in goods since 2022 — with shipment values doubling by 2024 — yet nearly half of identified suppliers remain unsanctioned, leaving a critical and clo...

05/07/2026

ICYMI: C4ADS Senior Analyst Margaux Garcia spoke with Defense News providing technical insights, as they mapped over 160 cargo flights linking Russia to Algeria between March 2025 and April 2026. The flights coincide with sightings of Russian-made warplanes traveling in and out of Algeria, potentially linked to new-generation weaponry and marking the country as an important hub for Russian arms.

Read more 👇

Algeria has become a key customer for Russian arms at a time when Moscow has seen a slump in its military-export business after the invasion of Ukraine.

05/05/2026

We stand in solidarity with Access Now, the RightsCon community, and the thousands of advocates, researchers, and journalists who had their plans upended days before RightsCon was set to begin.

Per Access Now's own statement, RightsCon's cancellation followed foreign interference tied to the participation of select civil society members. When Access Now declined to exclude those voices, the Zambian government shut the conference down just days before it was set to begin. This is transnational repression in action: states using diplomatic leverage to shrink the spaces where voices they perceive as inconvenient gather.

At C4ADS, we investigate and analyze how malign influence can operate through formal and informal channels. The tactics on display in Lusaka — pressure applied through quiet diplomatic channels, with the goal of excluding specific communities from civic space — are patterns we document across a range of contexts. They are not exceptional. They are a strategy.

What happened to RightsCon is a reminder of why the work of this community matters, and why the organizations doing it need to be supported. We look forward to standing alongside Access Now and the broader digital rights field when RightsCon convenes again.

Read the full statement from the RightsCon team 👇

Our official statement to the digital rights community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia

05/01/2026

This Sunday, May 3, is International Leopard Day — and we’re taking a moment to highlight the need for the conservation and protection of this species and their habitat.

C4ADS has collected detailed information on over 1,100 leopard seizures since 2013, supporting conservation organizations in their efforts to curb poaching and trafficking.

Check out the C4ADS Wildlife Seizure Dashboard to do your own analysis of publicly reported leopard seizures and other wildlife categories!

Explore 👇
https://wildlifedashboard.c4ads.org/

04/24/2026

ICYMI: The head of one of Europe’s most powerful drug cartels, Daniel Kinahan, was recently arrested in Dubai.

Since 2018, C4ADS has worked to expose how Dubai attracts illicit finance. Most recently, in 2022 and 2024, we shared leaked Dubai property records that surfaced how the Kinahan cartel used UAE real estate to move money despite US sanctions. Over the years, our analysis and technology helped build the public record that sustained pressure on Dubai’s financial opacity, leading to this moment.

Learn more 👇

As we continue to expand our dataset on assets hiding in Dubai, C4ADS is collaborating with a coalition of scholars and journalists to expose the illicit networks exploiting the UAE property market.

04/15/2026

On this day in 2023, violence erupted in Sudan. Since then, armed conflict between the Rapid Support Forces ( ) and the Sudanese Armed Forces ( ) has created the largest displacement crisis in the world — rife with famine, indiscriminate violence against civilians, the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian assistance, and many more threats to regional peace and security.

C4ADS has worked to support accountability and democracy in for more than a decade. In 2025, those efforts focused on weapons procurement networks, conflict financing, human rights, and tech-enabled solutions for atrocity monitoring. As violence in the country continues to surge, we will remain focused on the illicit financial flows, weapons networks, and conflict enablers that sustain it — and on supporting all of our partners working toward justice, accountability, and a civilian-led democratic future for Sudan.

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As armed conflict in Sudan enters its fourth year, C4ADS remains committed to supporting our Sudanese partners across civil society working towards a peaceful, civilian-led democratic transition. We aim to inform international efforts for accountability for atrocity crimes and violations of internat...

04/14/2026

ICYMI: C4ADS Senior Analyst Allen Maggard spoke at the Polish Embassy late last month alongside partners from the International Partnership for Human Rights and the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project, examining how Iran's drone tech transfers to Russia may constitute complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.

Watch a recording of the event 👇

Panelists will discuss a new report investigating Iran's role in Russia's drone war.

04/13/2026

Proud to see our 2024 Side Effects report cited in this piece from The Wire China exploring the regulation gap around pharmaceutical industry ties to XUAR, a region of China notorious for rampant human rights abuses and reliance on forced labor.

From Savannah Billman 👇

U.S. supply chains with connections to Xinjiang and the Chinese military are heavily regulated — just not for pharmaceuticals.

04/09/2026

ICYMI: C4ADS Analyst Will Cooke spoke at the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) Commission Meeting about the ways that strengthening beneficial ownership transparency for fishing vessels can improve accountability and cooperation.

More 👇
https://www.sprfmo.int/news/current-news/sprfmo-commission-concludes-14th-annual-meeting-in-panama-city