Watch Duty is a nonprofit disaster intelligence platform providing free, real-time wildfire and flood alerts and public safety updates across all 50 US states. Powered by a network of trained human reporters, first responders, dispatchers, and volunteers, Watch Duty verifies information from official channels, radio traffic, public posts, cameras, and satellite data before publishing alerts to the public. As wildfire and flooding activity intensifies, reliable access to source material — especially screenshots of official social posts — is essential for auditability, accountability, and helping reporters verify critical updates before communities act on them.
The Challenge:
Climate change is making wildfire and flood seasons longer and individual incidents faster-moving and more destructive, increasing the need for reliable public safety information. But critical safety updates are often scattered across county websites, fire departments, emergency agencies, and social media pages — including Facebook — where posts can be edited, deleted, or difficult to capture consistently.
Before partnering with the Bright Initiative, Watch Duty was monitoring approximately 700 URLs every 10 minutes, and needed to scale its coverage significantly and increase monitoring frequency during active incidents. Its previous screenshot provider struggled with reliability, particularly on Facebook, creating gaps in the source material reporters depend on to verify and document official communications.
The Solution:
To achieve this scale during a record-breaking wildfire season across the Pacific Northwest, Watch Duty uses Bright Data’s Web Scraper API to expand the monitoring and preservation of public safety-related online records, including Facebook posts.
Bright Data access provides Watch Duty with more reliable access to the source material its human reporters need to identify, verify, and document wildfire and major flood-related updates. The collected data is not automatically published. Instead, it supports Watch Duty’s editorial workflow: reporters review posts, cross-check them against official sources, and use screenshots as evidence for auditability and accountability before publishing alerts.
To date, Watch Duty has accessed more than 7 million records using Bright Data’s Web Scraper API for Facebook posts.
The Impact:
With Bright Data access, Watch Duty has scaled its monitoring operation to approximately 1,100 URLs every 10 minutes – equal to nearly 150,000 data fetches per day. By improving access to public safety-related records and preserving screenshots of time-sensitive posts, Watch Duty strengthens its verification process and maintains accountability around official communications. This helps the organization continue providing human-verified, trusted alerts to communities across all 50 states.
For individuals facing climate-driven emergencies, timely information can shape decisions about evacuation, shelter, road closures, and family safety. The same verified intelligence also supports emergency responders, first responders, and public safety teams with clearer situational awareness as conditions change. When wildfires move quickly, better access to verified information helps both residents and responders act with greater speed and confidence.
“Social media is a notoriously difficult environment for clarity. Bright Data is a critical piece of Watch Duty’s ability to pull out fast-changing safety information in an otherwise chaotic feed, translate, contextualize, and provide clear safety information to more than 30 million users to date.“ – Dave Merritt, Watch Duty Co-Founder and CTO
Access Watch Duty for real-time wildfire and natural disaster updates here.
