Ukrainian NGO “Foundation.101” in partnership with all-Ukrainian volunteer center “People’s Project” launched a mobile application “Karatel” (En. ‘The Punisher’), designed to help people protect their rights. “The name of the app – ‘The Punisher’ – is rather ironical, but it is designed to deal with serious things. Every day people post hundreds of photos in the social media, naming & shaming those who violate the rules – for instance, park their cars on the sidewalks, on the grass etc. These posts receive hundreds of likes and shares, but this rarely helps to bring perpetrators to responsibility”, noted Andrii Bohdanovych, head of the NGO “Foundation.101” at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Usually people are very busy and have no time to make an official complaint if they witness a violation. This app offers an opportunity to complaint about the problem directly to those who have to deal with it and to restore justice. By just some touches on the screen of their smartphone people can complaint about seven types of violations: bribe, rude behavior of officials, bad parking, sale of expired food, potholes on the roads etc. The developers are going to add more categories, if needed.
“A person who wants to complaint makes a photo or a video as a proof, provides a short information necessary to examine the case and sends this information to us through the app. Our lawyers will examine the case and address the mandated authorities. You can complaint about violations committed by private companies too, for instance, a supermarket,” The complaint remains anonymous for the authority mandated to deal with the problem. The personal information about users will be available only to a limited number of staff members of “Foundation.101”. As soon as the authorities respond, their answers will be downloaded into the app database, so the users can track the results of their complaint.
Every month, the app developers are going to publish a rating of companies and authorities, based on the feedback from the users. If users publish their complaints in the Facebook prior to sending the complaint through the app, they can use the hashtag #КаратиЛегко.
The funds for the project were collected though volunteer fundraising platform “People’s Project”. “This project is our response to social tension in the Internet, because at present a post in the Facebook or other social networks is the main tool to inform about the problem. I encourage everyone to download and use this app. It is free, so we ask everyone who likes it to make a small donation to support the project,” said Maksym Riabokon, director of “People’s Project”.
Since production, the app has already been downloaded by 100 users. It can be downloaded through Google Play for Android and through App Store for iOS users.