Meet L‑AI Bot
Your intelligent assistant for accessing public information through Brazil's Access to Information Law (LAI). Discover how our AI‑powered tool can help you navigate government transparency and find the data you need.
Data Fixers is an award‑winning consulting project specialized in gathering data and public records to foster environmental investigations.
Your intelligent assistant for accessing public information through Brazil's Access to Information Law (LAI). Discover how our AI‑powered tool can help you navigate government transparency and find the data you need.
Our commitment to transparency goes beyond data analysis. We actively promote public accountability through educational content and advocacy for open government initiatives.
A collection of journalistic investigations that used Brazil’s Access to Information Law.
Explore the project
Global Investigative Journalism Conference (Sweden) speech
Presentation at a tech conference in Lisbon
Interviewed by a Brazilian prime time show
Workshop on how to investigate deforestation with public records
This significant concentration of environmental infractions in a small fraction of the region highlights critical areas of concern in the Amazon. The data reveals patterns and hotspots of environmental violations, offering insights for further investigation and policy action.
We investigated how, with the support of politicians, individuals are invading Brazil's conservation units, deforesting, and profiting from the sale of plots in the Distrito Federal, near the Congress and Palácio do Planalto.
This investigation uncovers a scheme in the Amazon region called “agropó” that combines land grabbing, illegal mining, and international cocaine trafficking. The investigation reveals that wealthy landowners, such as Janio Oliveira, have been involved in this lucrative criminal network.
A one‑year cross‑border series of articles that mapped the presence of organized crime groups in the Amazon region and reported on‑the‑ground about the impacts of their actions. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the stories.
An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)‑led cross‑border investigation exposes how a lightly regulated sustainability industry overlooks forest destruction and human rights violations when granting environmental certifications. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the Brazilian stories.
In partnership with NGO Global Witness, Data Fixers investigated how government agencies use several strategies to withhold data about the cattle chain in Brazil, making it harder to investigate companies.
The Brazilian magazine Piauí has published a profile on Altino Masson, a man who has illegally seized 458,000 hectares of public lands, an area equivalent to three times the size of the city of São Paulo. This story is based on a data analysis conducted by Data Fixers and the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA).
This story was supported by Earth News Network/Internews. Brazilwood is being driven to extinction by an industry not often associated with organized crime: classical music. Known for its density and strength, the wood is crafted into bows that are used to play stringed instruments such as violins and cellos around the world. Forensic tests on a sample of the confiscated wood, obtained by reporters, show it was logged in the Pau Brazil National Park.
A two‑month cross‑border investigation in the US, UK and Brazil about a group of bowmakers suspected of trafficking an endangered Brazilian wood to make violin and cello bows.
An investigation about how environmental fines disappeared from Brazil's environmental agency office, Ibama, helping several offenders save money and continue deforestation in the Amazon.
We did web scraping of government and judicial data to support investigation into gold laundering.
We elaborated all information requests and organized the data to support investigation into illegal deforestation authorized by local governments.
We analyzed data showing tax exemptions from the Brazilian government to companies prosecuted for slave labor.
We found out that almost half environmental embargoes in Brazil have no name on it, meaning that the government didn't know who was responsible for deforestation in that area. By cross‑referencing public datasets, we were able to identify some of these agents.
This story explains how tracking illegal cattle in the Amazon is possible through GTA, a document issued by state agencies, and why they try to hide those documents from civil society.
This significant concentration of environmental infractions in a small fraction of the region highlights critical areas of concern in the Amazon. The data reveals patterns and hotspots of environmental violations, offering insights for further investigation and policy action.
We investigated how, with the support of politicians, individuals are invading Brazil's conservation units, deforesting, and profiting from the sale of plots in the Distrito Federal, near the Congress and Palácio do Planalto.
This investigation uncovers a scheme in the Amazon region called “agropó” that combines land grabbing, illegal mining, and international cocaine trafficking. The investigation reveals that wealthy landowners, such as Janio Oliveira, have been involved in this lucrative criminal network.
A one‑year cross‑border series of articles that mapped the presence of organized crime groups in the Amazon region and reported on‑the‑ground about the impacts of their actions. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the stories.
An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)‑led cross‑border investigation exposes how a lightly regulated sustainability industry overlooks forest destruction and human rights violations when granting environmental certifications. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the Brazilian stories.
In partnership with NGO Global Witness, Data Fixers investigated how government agencies use several strategies to withhold data about the cattle chain in Brazil, making it harder to investigate companies.
The Brazilian magazine Piauí has published a profile on Altino Masson, a man who has illegally seized 458,000 hectares of public lands, an area equivalent to three times the size of the city of São Paulo. This story is based on a data analysis conducted by Data Fixers and the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA).
This story was supported by Earth News Network/Internews. Brazilwood is being driven to extinction by an industry not often associated with organized crime: classical music. Known for its density and strength, the wood is crafted into bows that are used to play stringed instruments such as violins and cellos around the world. Forensic tests on a sample of the confiscated wood, obtained by reporters, show it was logged in the Pau Brazil National Park.
A two‑month cross‑border investigation in the US, UK and Brazil about a group of bowmakers suspected of trafficking an endangered Brazilian wood to make violin and cello bows.
An investigation about how environmental fines disappeared from Brazil's environmental agency office, Ibama, helping several offenders save money and continue deforestation in the Amazon.
We did web scraping of government and judicial data to support investigation into gold laundering.
We elaborated all information requests and organized the data to support investigation into illegal deforestation authorized by local governments.
We analyzed data showing tax exemptions from the Brazilian government to companies prosecuted for slave labor.
A dashboard to explore how Brazilian congressmen spend their legislative amendments in their electoral bases.
View dashboardInteractive dashboard showing visitors to the Presidential building and their meeting patterns.
View dashboardAnalysis of presidential speeches and public statements with data visualization.
View dashboardMajor investigations published through Data Fixers project
Read moreData Fixers wins grant from the Earth Journalism Network
Read moreEmpowering a more informed, transparent society with decentralized technology
Read moreAfter six months, Data Fixers achieves 100 mentions and new cross‑border investigations
Read moreL‑AI Bot: A chatbot that hones Brazilian information requests before they're filed
Read moreTracking organized crime's dirty money illicit operations tips
Read moreLatin American journalists offer advice on investigating organized crime
Read moreData Fixers is a data‑driven journalism and consulting project created at the The Brown Institute for Media Innovation — a joint initiative between Columbia University and Stanford University. This project received a Magic Grant to find data and public records to support investigative journalism in Brazil and is coordinated by journalist Luiz Fernando Toledo (Master of Science in Data Journalism 2022).