Award‑winning journalism project, specialized in gathering data and public records for investigations.
An innovation lab to test new tools and methods that turn into stories and courses for thousands of journalists.
US$ 100,000 grant · Brown Institute for Media Innovation · Columbia & Stanford Universities (2022/2023)
Pixel art game inspired by a BBC story: you are a mayoral candidate, 10 days from the first round of voting. Choose between debate, TV airtime, street campaigning, WhatsApp mass messaging, neurobots, deepfakes — with real risk of being barred by Brazil's Electoral Court.
Investigative journalism game: receive an anonymous tip, dig through public records and publish the story.
AI tool that simulates how different audiences would react to a journalistic story.
A collection of journalistic investigations that used Brazil's Access to Information Law.
Investigate public spending with Brazil's Access to Information Law. (Course in Portuguese)
Ask anything about Brazil's Access to Information Law (LAI) and public records. Powered by 1M+ curated documents and decisions.
409 reports of labor inspection operations by the Ministry of Labor (1995-2025), grouped by year and state.
Polls registered at Brazil's Electoral Court (TSE) with automatic updates twice a day and Telegram alerts.
Denials of public information requests under Brazil's Access to Information Law: historical series, denial reasons and agency rankings.
Journalism coverage clippings and indicators — themes, outlets, frequency.
Government alignment of Brazilian lawmakers — votes aligned with the executive, historical series.
Discourse analysis of Brazilian presidents — text search, named mentions, topic evolution over time.
Rapporteur, committee and individual amendments — payments, beneficiaries, responsible lawmakers.
Brazilian Civil Aviation Registry (RAB) — search by tail number, owner, operator.
700 thousand environmental fines since 1977. Search by ID, state ranking and daily cron update.
Our commitment to transparency goes beyond data analysis. We actively promote public accountability through educational content and advocacy for open government initiatives.
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.
Major investigations published through Data Fixers project
Read moreData Fixers wins grant from the Earth Journalism Network
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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
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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).