Stage Talks with Bellingcat

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Centre For Information Resilience's Sofia Santos. Sofia also runs a website called Gralhix.com which provides exercises and guides for those needing to practice their open source research skillsets. The discussion on stage was all about how to get into our industry, Sofia provided invaluable tips and resources for beginners. The links we shared during the talk can be found here: Centre for information resilience https://www.info-res.org/Eyes of Russia Project: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/07/24/over-500-days-of-the-russia-ukraine-monitor-map/When starting to write up your conclusions its also worth checking your work against this list too: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2024/04/25/oshit-seven-deadly-sins-of-bad-open-source-research/Bellingcat's video guide to working with OSINT tools without coding knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymCMy8OffHM&list=PLq6cQ--4f90icDJUwiGcPrFFLLguuZ0htBellingcat's mental health hygiene guide: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2022/11/23/how-to-maintain-mental-hygiene-as-an-open-source-researcher/Sofia's colleague Ben Strick's OSINT YouTube 'Bendobrown': https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrFPX1Vfqk3ehZKSFeb9pVIHqxqrNW8SyThis talk was recorded on June 5th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Bellingcat' Research Lead, Carlos Gonzales. Carlos unpacked a series of recent investigations, delivered by Bellingcat and partners into human smuggler operations across South America and into the US. You can find a link to Bellingcat's investigation into the digital coyote here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/30/a-phantoms-tale-the-coyote-influencer-on-tiktok/And the wider series of investigations via our partners El Clip: https://www.elclip.org/traileres-trampa-migrantes/The following investigations were also mentioned in the talk looking at other regions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001z1sthttps://www.arte.tv/en/videos/117240-001-A/data-sources/This talk was recorded on May 23rd 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's episode, co-founder and director of The Continent, Sipho Kings joined us. The Continent is an award winning journal, distributed weekly to audiences, covering 54 countries. It's published as an old fashioned newspaper of sorts, on a beautifully designed PDF, and distributed via word of mouth, on closed messaging platforms. In the talk we spoke about the benefits and limitations of distributing on these platforms, and what it's like working in a small newsroom covering so many regions. Links: The Continent Chat 263The OxpeckersCode For Africa The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday the 9th of May in the Bellingcat Discord server. Music courtesy of Artlist.

This week we spoke to a representative from Bellingcat's Justice and Accountability Unit, Consultant Natasha Pereverzina. Bellingcat’s Justice and Accountability Unit is a joint project with the Global Legal Action Network. Through years of collaboration, we have developed and tested a step-by-step methodology for investigators to follow, hopefully ensuring the viability of open source information in a court setting. Its aim is to ensure that any material discovered by Bellingcat’s dedicated Justice and Accountability Unit is gathered in accordance with rules on admissibility of evidence so as to make it suitable for use in future legal proceedings and other accountability processes. Natasha unpacks what its like working within the unit and what their end goals are. You can find more information on the unit on Bellingcat's website here: https://www.bellingcat.com/what-is-bellingcats-ja-unit-december-2022/And on GLAN's website here: https://www.glanlaw.org/online-open-source-methodology You can also find the mock trial recordings here: https://www.glanlaw.org/osint-mock-trial and Nick Waters talk on this unit at the International Journalism Festival here: https://www.journalismfestival.com/programme/2024/war-crimes-investigations-and-accountability-using-open-source-techniquesThe talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday the 25th of April in the Bellingcat discord server. Music courtesy of Artlist.

This week's live Stage Talk was slightly different, we were joined by a Discord community member/open source researcher, Allison Jenkins. Allison was speaking on an ongoing project that she was looking for support on. Allison has lived experience of the Troubled Teen Industry and realised there was a lack of comprehensive and easy to access information on the industry for concerned parents or for potential future accountability. So over the last few years she has been building a publicly accessible information database on the institutions and companies involved in the industry, using open source techniques. At the time of the talk Allison was having difficulty finishing the project and getting it ready for public view, due to funding and resource restrictions. If you want to help Allison with her work, join our Discord server and ask for further information: www.discord.gg/bellingcat Links that were mentioned in the chat:The background article on the TTI: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/cult-spawned-tough-love-teen-industry/https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/ WASP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Association_of_Specialty_Programs_and_SchoolsAllison (and her ArchivEye tool) is featured in the article of the 2023 Bellingcat Hackathon here: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/06/16/third-hackathon-open-source-tools/ Project from the Bellingcat hackathon: https://github.com/eastrd/ArchivEye The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday the 11th of April in the Bellingcat discord server. Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's live Stage Talk we were joined by Sasha Issenberg, an author and political writer, speaking on how political parties around the world but particularly in the US, have previously and are currently responding to election mis and disinformation. You can find Sasha's full list of books here: https://www.sashaissenberg.com/copy-of-sasha-s-other-writingsAnd he can be found on X here: https://twitter.com/sissenbergThe talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday the 28th of March in the Bellingcat discord server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by fact checkers, Alice Milliken and Hannah Ajakaiye. In the talk we discussed the role of a fact checker in this digital age and how these skillsets are vital for journalists, researchers and the wider public. We also spoke about how AI has had an impact on verification techniques. Hannah's profileA link to one of the social videos produced with Hannah for the combatting health misinformation campaignAlice's profile Bellingcat training sign upsBellingcat YouTube *Please note that during the course of this live talk we faced technical issues in the Discord Server. These issues are reflected in the recording.This talk was recorded on March 15th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Bellingcat reseracher, Logan Williams and some Discord community members who have recently become Bellingcat contributors. They were there to speak on a series of investigations into an environmental disaster which had been evolving since February 7th in Trinidad and Tobago. Bellingcat and these discord members used open sources to reveal details about the vessel leaking oil and who was likely responsible. Find all three investigations here: https://www.bellingcat.com/?s=tobagoAnd find our partners the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian's version of the third investigation here: https://guardian.co.tt/news/oil-spill-secrets-panamanian-firm-at-centre-of-tobago-oil-spillcargo-valued-at-us2m-6.2.1940419.ae386d7e8e In the talk we also referenced our work on the Russian grain smuggling operations, you can find that research here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/08/21/russias-ghost-ships-and-the-evolution-of-a-grain-smuggling-operation/ This talk was recorded on March 7th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

In this week's Stage Talk we were joined by Bellingcat' Director of Research and Training, Giancarlo Fiorella. Giancarlo detailed Bellingcat's efforts in the education space and how training high school students in media literacy may be one solution to the issue of disinformation. You can find a link to the Student View project here: https://thestudentview.org/resources-hub/ And our available workshops here: www.bellingcat.com/workshops/ This talk was recorded on February 15th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

Warning: This episode discusses explicit adult content and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).This week we were joined by Bellingcat Researcher Kolina Koltai, discussing her latest research focus into nonconsensual sexual AI generated imagery and the communities and companies set up to create and distribute AI porn. Her research so far has led to restrictions on one company's payment providers and the closure of the discord server set up for their creator community. You can read her research into the company AnyDream here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11/27/anydream-secretive-ai-platform-broke-stripe-rules-to-rake-in-money-from-nonconsensual-pornographic-deepfakes/ This talk was recorded on February 1st 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.