You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Special lecture on "Open-Source Intelligence for Journalism" (OSINT)
powered byJotCast
Pooja Rajesh
7:30
Good evening and welcome to the lecture on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) for Journalism by Giancarlo Fiorella.
7:39
Giancarlo Fiorella kicks off the lecture by mentioning that the name ‘Belling Cat’ comes from a famous story about a nest of mice who were trying to bell the cat, who was constantly trying to terrorise them.They decided to bell the cat so they could be warned against it. The idea comes from the concept that we as humans, are the nest of mice, trying to bell the big cats, the evils of the world, like big corporations and those that exploit human beings.
7:42
7:44
Fiorella says that they want to teach other people about how to bell cats that terrorise them and thus they talk to students and reach out to people because they want to be mices themselves and teach other people how to be mices as well. For this, they use information that is easily accessible on the internet- anyone can find it with the very basic use of an url, which is why it is called an open source.
7:46
7:48
"While Open-Source (OS) information can be free like tweets and articles, it can also be paid for like flight tracking or a database of leaked emails. However, one must remember that OS research is in no way hacking, stealing or spying. OS research can be applied not just in journalism but in various other sectors like NGOs, social work, et," he adds.
7:50
"If you are not excited about the idea of OS research, you should be. There is a lot of potential here," he says.
7:51
7:56
Does the idea of Open-Source Investigations excite you?
Yes, I want to know more (100% | 4 votes)
 
No, Its too dangerous (0% | 0 votes)
 
Total Votes: 4
7:57
He talks about project ‘Geolocating the Mahbere Dego Massacre’ in which five (5) videos showing shooting and killing civilians surfaced in telegram. His team wanted to “validate” these videos, and wanted to make sure that these were actually recorded in Ethiopia. Confusion arose when Twitter claimed that these videos had actually been filmed near a town in Mahbere Dego.- the team had no idea whether it was a town or a city and even Google Maps failed to identify the place.
8:01
Fiorello gives an insight into the processes that they followed to determine the location. They would constantly watch videos on repeat and look for clues in them in order to confirm the location. They took arid lands and mountains as a clue, they figured that these mountains were actually plateaus and the only place these were present in are in Ethiopia- that was their first hint in determining the location.
Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins: How to find truth with open-source investigation?
8:06
Fiorella: “There were a bunch of plateaus near Mahbere Dego, we tried lining up the images and my colleague was able to find a spot using Google Earth Pro and determine the spot where the execution videos were located.”
8:09
The team then created a composite of the videos to get a wider perspective of the landscape and started matching those with Google Earth Pro images, they also took the help of another app called ‘PicWiser’ to get more detailed images of those locations.
8:11
“Open sources journalists are good at finding tools. and to repurpose them for their use” explains Fiorella.
8:15
8:16
He mentions that at ‘Belling Cat’  they take tweets from even someone who has as few as two (2) followers on Twitter. At the same time, they are also worried about the security of their sources and constantly debate whether or not they should access “grey information.”
8:18
Bellingcat Founder Eliot Higgins on Navalny, Syria and Qanon
In answer to a question about how to make use of Planet Map, he confirms, “Planet lab is very accessible.”
8:24
Fiorella points out that many times information is not accessible and a hacker might have to hack into a profile and leak the password. Sourcing information that was inaccessible at one point and is now out in the open is what can be termed as ‘Grey Information’.
8:25
8:28
He sheds light on how grey information is ethically difficult to deal with and that Russian information has always been “extremely leaky”.  The fact is that almost everyone’s information in Russia has made it to the internet because of brokers.
8:30
‘Belling Cats’ philosophy is to help everyone access and work with open source information and that is primarily why they often collaborate with journalists and other organisations.
8:32
8:35
“We have limitations on what we can do. We try to send people on the ground to check but sometimes it's impossible. Ideally we should go and investigate on the ground,” answers Fiorella to a question on the importance of covering onground investigations in sensitive cases like the one in Mehebere Dego.
8:41
Speaking about the tools they use he says, “We use different tools, by thinking creatively we find certain tools. I use Tweet deck and Google Earth pro the most. Don't worry too much about tools, worry about problems and how to find their solutions through tools.”
8:46
Giancarlo Fiorella wraps up the conversation by urging students into believing that imagination is the limit and that anybody could begin to work in OS research by simply geolocating videos and getting stories from any corner of the world.
8:56
Thank you for being with us. Follow us here and @ACJIndia on Twitter for more live coverage.
Connecting…