2026-10-06T07:27:10Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34005270 2026-10-05T18:22:56Z category_27664 category_27682 category_29716 category_29719 category_29722 category_29725 category_29728 category_29731 category_29737 item_type_3 month_year_10_2026

CITIZEN AUDITING Erkan Yazargan (25061035) Citizenship International relations Administrative law Constitutional law Domestic human rights law Migration, asylum and refugee law Military law and justice Privacy and data rights Public law not elsewhere classified citizen curation This white paper goes beyond a standard advocacy text; it serves as a foundational methodological pillar within a longitudinal participatory observation corpus. Readers, institutional reviewers, and policymakers should evaluate this document through the following core principles:<ol><li>Civic Observation as an Evidence Layer: Citizen auditing bridges the gap between everyday encounters with automated systems and formal institutional review, providing structured records without replacing regulatory bodies.</li><li>Methodological Discipline over Speculation: Aligned with rigorous recording standards (<code>Observe → Record → Verify → Notify → Archive</code>), this framework emphasizes separating raw primary evidence from analytical interpretation.</li><li>Traceability and Institutional Memory: By standardizing how digital and algorithmic events are documented, this approach builds an immutable, cross-referenced evidentiary architecture that supports independent verification.</li></ol><h3 dir="ltr">Introduction</h3>Artificial intelligence governance cannot rely exclusively on legislation, institutional oversight, technical compliance, and internal auditing. As AI-enabled systems increasingly influence communication, access to information, employment, public services, education, digital platforms, and everyday decision-making, citizens are also becoming direct observers of their effects.This raises a practical question: How can citizens and independent observers document AI-related events in a consistent, verifiable, and responsible way?Citizen Auditing proposes a simple answer: create a repeatable recording standard that separates what was observed from what was subsequently interpreted. The objective is not to turn citizens into lawyers, regulators, or professional investigators. The objective is to enable ordinary people to create reliable records that can later be independently examined by institutions, researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, regulators, or other competent bodies.The basic principle is: Observe → Record → Verify → Notify → ArchiveDocumentation is the first act of civic accountability.<h3 dir="ltr">1. Why Citizen Auditing Matters for AI Governance</h3>AI governance is often discussed at the level of policies, regulations, technical standards, and organisational compliance. These mechanisms are essential. However, there is another layer of governance that begins at the point where people actually encounter technology.A citizen may observe:<ul><li>an unexpected automated decision;</li><li>a change in the behaviour of an AI-enabled service;</li><li>misleading or inconsistent AI-generated information;</li><li>a possible transparency problem;</li><li>an unexplained moderation or recommendation outcome;</li><li>a recurring pattern affecting users;</li><li>a publicly visible statement that appears inconsistent with observed system behaviour;</li><li>or a significant change that may warrant further examination.</li></ul>A single observation does not necessarily establish wrongdoing. It does, however, create a potential record. The quality of that initial record can determine whether the event can later be independently verified.Citizen Auditing therefore does not attempt to replace formal oversight. It creates an additional evidence layer between everyday experience and institutional review. 2026-10-05T18:22:56Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.34005270.v6 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/CITIZEN_AUDITING/34005270 CC BY 4.0