Why Witness exists
In November 2025 I was crossing on foot from Ukraine into Romania at Siret. The crossing closed. No announcement, no explanation. The soldiers standing at the barrier did not know why either. Everyone waited.
A day later I read that a Russian drone had struck the Orlivka crossing the night of the 21st. That was the answer, and it took a day to reach people who had been standing at the border when it happened.
The near miss is not the story. The gap is. Hundreds of people were inside an event and outside the information about it, and that information existed the entire time. It had nowhere structured to go.
Witness is the structure.
A record of the present that is anchored to place and time, weighted by evidence, and owned by the people who create it. Not a feed of claims, and not a scrape of other platforms. A verified layer under everything that happens.
Reporters, newsrooms, and data teams can request access.