US students turn grief into tech startup after France attack

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A group of California college students who were in France during a 2016 terrorist attack are turning their grief into tech tools to fight terrorism.

Anjali Banerjee and several University of California, Berkeley classmates were in Nice two years ago when a man plowed a truck through a crowd, killing 86 people.

They’ve built a startup called Archer that creates digital tools to help investigators, human rights workers and others tackle sanctions evasion, corruption, terrorism and other global violence.

Amnesty International is using one of their tools to verify the authenticity of photographs documenting the massacre of Rohingya in Myanmar.

The students hope to turn their data analysis tool into a for-profit company. Banerjee says they were inspired to act after having to rely on each other and the people of Nice during the chaotic hours after the attack.