Tipsheet
Tipsheet: Latest Tools for Investigating with Telegram
Telegram’s rapid growth means reporters and investigators need to become trained in new tools that can be used to search and analyze data from the platform.
Tag
open source tools
13 posts
Methodology Reporting Tools & Tips
New Reporting Tools to Archive Videos, Find QAnon Networks, and Track Targets via Online Reviews
These new reporting tools and apps, which recently debuted at two Bellingcat Hackathons, can help journalists easily archive videos, locate satellite imagery, and track people via online reviews.
Resource Tipsheet
Free, Game-Changing Data Extraction Tools that Require No Coding Skills
In this edition of GIJN Toolbox, we examine the latest advancements from the IRE22 conference on data extraction and optical character recognition (OCR) tools for turning unwieldy documents into searchable spreadsheets.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How We Proved That the Biggest Black Lives Matter Page on Facebook Was Fake
CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan describes how he and a colleague were able to discover, and then prove, that the largest Black Lives Matter Facebook page in 2018 was an Australia-based scam. O’Sullivan also provides insights into the value of good archive sites and domain registration tools in investigating suspicious social media pages, in conjunction with traditional reporting methods.
Reporting Tools & Tips
My Favorite Tools: Sally Hayden
For our series about journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke with freelance journalist Sally Hayden, who has won multiple awards for her reporting on migration. She told GIJN’s Helen Massy-Beresford about the tools she uses to communicate securely with sources, record interviews, manage a freelance career, and more.
Reporting Tools & Tips
The Most Comprehensive TweetDeck Research Guide in Existence (Probably)
Do you know how to use TweetDeck to copy someone else’s Twitter list, then tailor it to your own needs? How about using it to search Instagram? Even if you’ve been using TweetDeck for years, you may still learn a trick or two from this comprehensive guide by Bellingcat investigator and trainer Charlotte Godart.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Use TweetDeck for Open Source Investigations
If you’re an OSINT investigator or use OSINT in any of your work, it’s impossible to ignore Twitter as a collection source. Here’s how to get the most out of it by organizing your searches on a TweetDeck dashboard.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tracking Illegal Funding Campaigns via Cryptocurrency
How do you track cryptocurrency transactions? Brenna Smith, an undergraduate researcher at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Investigations Lab, who specializes in investigating disinformation and the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, has created a tutorial using Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ bitcoin funding campaign as a case study to show you how.
Reporting Tools & Tips
You’ve Been Doing OSINT and You Didn’t Even Know It
Many people have been using some of the most common OSINT tools and techniques unwittingly. There’s one tool in particular that anyone with an internet connection has used: Google, or other search engines. Here are examples of how good ol’ Google search queries can be more effective than any fancy reverse image search tool.
Case Studies
How They Did It: A Private Yacht, a Luxury Jet and Hungary’s Governing Elite
In the hot summer of 2018, Hungary’s Atlatszo tracked two luxury vehicles – a private plane and a yacht – that the Hungarian government elite, including Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his closest allies, used to travel to business meetings, football games and vacations abroad. Here’s how they did it.