Ordinary citizens are solving war crimes with Google Maps and Twitter. Here, Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins reveals how anyone can become a digital detective!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1192
What We Discuss with Eliot Higgins:
- Bellingcat, the investigative journalism group founded by Eliot Higgins, pioneered open source investigations using publicly available data — social media posts, satellite imagery, and online databases — to uncover war crimes, assassinations, and state-level deception that traditional journalism missed.
- Bellingcat's techniques include geolocation (matching video backgrounds to satellite imagery), chronolocation (using shadows to determine time), and "fingerprinting" military equipment by unique damage patterns to track movements across borders.
- Bellingcat's major investigations exposed Russian involvement in MH17 downing, identified GRU agents in Skripal poisoning through passport/phone metadata, and mapped entire Russian military units from soldiers' social media posts during Ukraine operations.
- Bellingcat faces serious threats — Russian surveillance, hacking attempts, disinformation campaigns, and even kidnapping plots — while being falsely labeled as CIA fronts to discredit its independent verification work.
- Anyone can learn open source investigation through Bellingcat's free resources, Discord community of 40,000 members, YouTube tutorials, and volunteer programs — proving that citizen journalism can hold powerful actors accountable.
- And much more...
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