LibGuides: Misinformation: Investigations and OSINT

Investigations and OSINT

Open source research involves the gathering and analysis of openly available information such as satellite images, maps, photos and videos, social media posts, datasets, and more. These techniques, often referred to as open source intelligence (OSINT), may be used to verify facts, expose violations or mistruths, track movements, and uncover identities. Open source investigative methods are increasingly popular among newsrooms, government agencies, law enforcement agencies, and online sleuths. Groups such as Bellingcat, founded in 2014, and Forensic Architecture, founded in 2010, are leading journalistic investigations alongside news teams such as the Financial Times’ Visual Investigations, the New York Times’ Visual Investigations, the Washington Post’s Visual Forensics, and BBC Verify. In one example, Forensic Architecture’s investigation Shireen Abu Akleh: The Extrajudicial Killing of a Journalist used spatial and audio analysis of multiple videos, examination of unpublished autopsy documents, 3D modeling, and other techniques to demonstrate how the Palestinian journalist was deliberately targeted. The following resources introduce OSINT and offer tools for open source research and verification.

Guides

A Guide to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) (CJR)
This guide, produced by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, instructs reporters on how to “use the information they gather online to peer behind the superficial mask of the internet” with detailed information on how to find, verify, and save information online.
Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations (UC Berkeley Human Rights Center and UN OHCHR)
The Protocol provides “guidance on methodologies and procedures for gathering, analysing, and preserving digital information in a professional, legal, and ethical manner” for human rights investigations. In particular, the Protocol outlines standards, methodologies, and ethical guidelines as OSINT work becomes increasingly popular and subject to potential pitfalls.
Open Source Investigations Handbook (Al Jazeera Media Institute)
This handbook “offers journalists the necessary skills to acquire and verify documentation” to get started with OSINT projects.
Bellingcat’s freely available Online Open Source Investigation Toolkit

Books

Digital Witness by Sam Dubberley (Editor); Alexa Koenig (Editor); Daragh Murray (Editor)
Publication Date: 2020

This book is the first to cover the history, ethics, methods, and best practices associated with open source research. It is intended to equip the next generation of lawyers, journalists, sociologists, data scientists, other human rights activists, and researchers with the cutting-edge skills needed to work in an increasingly digitized, and information-saturated environment.
We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins
Publication Date: 2021

We Are Bellingcat tells the inspiring story of how a college dropout pioneered a new category of reporting and galvanized citizen journalists—working together from their computer screens around the globe—to crack major cases, at a time when fact-based journalism is under assault from authoritarian forces. Founder Eliot Higgins introduces readers to the tools Bellingcat investigators use, tools available to anyone, from software that helps you pinpoint the location of an image, to an app that can nail down the time that photo was taken.
OSINT Techniques by Michael Bazzell
Publication Date: 2023

The new OSINT professional must be self-sustaining and possess their own tools and resources. You will become a more proficient subject matter expert who will be armed with the knowledge and readiness to articulate the sources of your findings.