Archivists preserve social media posts from conflict zones — but verifying and protecting the vast quantity of dynamic content presents huge challenges for the teams that attempt it.

Occasionally, an image from a conflict zone makes the world stop and take notice.

Like in September 2024, when a heart-breaking picture went viral online of 10-year-old Tala Abu Ajwa’s pink rollerblades protruding from her cloth-shrouded body.

Her parents in Gaza City said she had been killed by an Israeli airstrike as she went outside her home to skate.

But what about the huge quantity of online material from conflict zones that most of us don’t see?

Unless it’s archived, it’s at risk of being lost forever.

Archivists such as Dr Jamila Ghaddar seek to capture and preserve as much online material as they can, from videos shared on Telegram to viral posts on Instagram.