This from @craigsilverman.bsky.social's story nails it. The companies generally do not like spam ads or need the revenue from them. They simply can't fight the spam effectively without adding friction that will result in “too much good revenue flushed out”. So they make it OUR problem. #Regulation

Today on @indicator.media: I speak to the lawyer representing the New Jersey teen suing AI nudifier ClothOff. We spoke about the broad coalition of lawyers fighting to shut down these tools of online abuse, the difficulty of getting their owners served, and the claims his client is pursuing.

"The question is whether Grokipedia can succeed not as an alternative to Wikipedia but as a means to delegitimize it. 'Flooding the zone with shit' ... doesn’t necessarily seek to replace institutions of collective knowledge generation; it seeks to deface them." indicator.media/p/grokipedia...

Two weeks ago, I identified a TikTok sympathy scam using racial slurs and false claims of “handmade” products from “family-owned” businesses. Thanks to @craigsilverman.bsky.social, nearly 200 connected scam accounts have since been removed. indicator.media/p/tiktok-sym...

Sympathy scams have proliferated across platforms this year, especially TikTok. I looked at the latest iteration, which uses fabricated racial slurs & insults to bait people into buying cheap products. We IDd ~200 TikTok accounts w/ millions of views:

This is tomorrow night and tickets are free!

Not all misinformation requires sophisticated tech or AI. For @craigsilverman.bsky.social's @indicator.media, I deep-dived into these accounts generated millions of views—and potentially handsome profits—with a little clever editing and an understanding of how strong emotions drive clicks.

We published an investigation from @kcinbk.bsky.social into YouTube vids that falsely claim to show police racially profiling and arresting a person that turns out to to be an FBI agent. They've earned over 300 million views. In response, YouTube banned 13 channels: indicator.media/p/youtube-co...

A few OSINT tips in our new, free Briefing : 📍 How to set up a free, private AI system 📍 What the new Tools of War database can help you find 📍How to identify an X profile w/ the new "About this account" info panel Subscribe to get it every Friday:

Come celebrate Media Literacy Week with me in Toronto!

Today on @indicator.media: A first-of-its-kind audit of AI labels on major social platforms.

If you're in Toronto on Oct 29, I'm doing a free talk & discussion at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, "The New Age of Digital Deception: What's Changed and How to Fight Back." It's presented by the Canadian Journalism Foundation and MediaSmarts:

Absolutely fantastic photo for this Globe And Mail story www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...

The latest about OSINT & digital deception: 📍X may add info to profiles that can help w/ verification 📍A new WordPress Finder Bookmarklet was inspired by our guide to investigating WP sites 📍Research shows it's easy to "poison" a LLM Read for free:

We love our members and it’s gratifying to know that people in different fields see value in what we’re doing at @indicator.media

NEW on @indicator.media: I found 101 accounts impersonating Telemundo, Televisa, CNN and other media outlets spreading clickbaity falsehoods to millions on TikTok. The company took them all down after I reached out.

Latest edition of our Indicator Briefing looks at: 📍Could YouTube bring Alex Jones back? 📍The latest in Sora manipulation 📍OSINT tools for tracing sketchy ships, viewing JSON files Free to subscribe and to read:

Today on Indicator: Is the community behind X's Community Notes cooked?

There are lots of ways to make money on social networks, but creators are increasingly being paid directly by platforms. Meta, TikTok, Snap, & X have programs that pay people based on engagement. My latest piece shows how to identify monetized accounts:

A few months ago, I approached CBC News with a pitch about crypto ATMs, which are a preferred way for fraudsters to extract money from victims. Canada has the most crypto kiosks per capita, but it lags on regulation. Our first story, with more to come: www.cbc.ca/news/cana...

Meta set off a bit of a panic in the OSINT community a few weeks ago by removing the “Posts” filter from Facebook native search. I contacted the company and got the lowdown on what happened. It's in today's free Indicator Briefing (plus lots more info!):

We looked back on the "backlash" against American Eagle ads featuring Sydney Sweeney and her "great jeans." Right-wing media declared that liberals were outraged and thought the ads were racist -- even the White House joined in. If you thought that story reeked, you'll want to see what we found.

New on @indicator.media: Almost all major platforms have promised to label AI content on their services, but it can be hard to keep track of who said they do what and how. I collected information for 8 different platforms in one nifty table, that we will keep updating.

I found +3,000 Meta ads for nudifiers & AI girlfriend apps that featured bare breasts, simulated sex acts etc. Meta said in June that it had deployed new methods to block nudifier ads. Indicator will continue to report on its progress, or lack thereof:

Google has removed its political ad library in the EU, including historical data. A big loss for transparency and accountability. Shameful.

Today's Indicator Briefing is full of insight and tips: 📍How YouTube bent the knee to the Trump admin 📍Anti-slop policies at Spotify & new Community Notes research 📍Inside a viral prompt injection trick that exposed an AI recruiter Subscribe for free:

I listened to 202 minutes of those AI-generated podcasts. They were not good. indicator.media/p/this-podca...

I don’t think all AI is slop, but I do think all 19 episodes of Inception Point AI’s shows that I listened to are. Here’s a show about an alligator pooping on Ron DeSantis. I could find no corroborating evidence this allegedly viral event ever happened.

Millions of websites run on WordPress. That's good news for investigators, as there are some useful OSINT techniques for WP sites. Here's how to find author accounts, extract images, files, and plugins — and maybe even find something before it's published:

Meta exposé author faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising company

I believe this is the most comprehensive guide available anywhere about how to link websites together in order to uncover ownership, connections, and funding. Check out the Indicator guide to connecting websites together using OSINT tools and methods:

Today's free Briefing has new data about Meta's Community Notes program and a look at how X's program is stagnating. Plus: 📍 Tools for archiving YouTube, and to search for archived vids 📍 Manhole covers and OSINT 📍How AI is being used for fact checking

Bookmarklets are useful, free tools to add to your investigative arsenal. They can extract user IDs, access full-size locked profile photos, decode timestamps from TikTok URLs, and more. Here's my guide to using OSINT bookmarklets to find hidden info:

My latest Indicator Guide looks at 11 OSINT tools to help you capture webpages, social media accounts etc. I break down their features, provide comparison charts, and share a code that gives you free access to a new web capture tool. Read it here:

Today on @indicator.media: I found that 53 TikTok videos pushing clickbaity hoaxes about Charlie Kirk's assassination got almost 32 million views in three days. Most were tied to accounts I've previously reported on for AI slop, scams, and Spanish-language misinformation.

Even if you tried not to see the video of Charlie Kirk's shooting, there's a good chance you did. @craigsilverman.bsky.social and I talk about why. slate.com/podcasts/wha...

After spending close to a decade fighting viral hoaxes, Meta is letting them flourish in the US — and even paying people to produce them. A longtime FB hoaxster confirmed he's been monetized and is earning payouts from Meta. My free to read report:

NEW: On June 11, Meta announced new measures to prevent AI nudifiers from advertising on its platforms. Since that date, the company ran at least 4,215 ads for these tools of online abuse that reached 359,547 users in the EU and the UK alone. And that's not all.

GitHub recently restricted access to repos filed with OSINT/dark web/infosec links and resources. I spoke to multiple people that had their accounts blocked from public view without warning or explanation. Read GitHub's response and more @indicator.media: indicator.media/p/github-res...

In roughly 3 months, Indicator has been responsible for thousands of takedowns of deceptive/abusive content on major platforms. Why not sharpen your investigative skills and support independent journalism by taking advantage of our 20% membership discount indicator.media/upgrade

NEW: A digital fashion startup that works w/ Puma, Lacoste, Snap advertised its AI product on Meta as a tool for non-consensual sexualized image generation. “Dress up your buddy’s wife in a Tiny latex dress," said one ad. The company blamed a contractor

Meta is building and giving users tools that will only exacerbate enforcement issues. This feels inevitable. www.reuters.com/business/met...

The new Indicator Briefing has info about: 📍Deceptive use of AI at J.Crew and Vogue 📍Recent disinfo campaigns in the Philippines, Germany, Brazil 📍Tools for email, metadata 📍Free webinars about OSINT, GIS, gen AI in politics Subscribe for free to read:

Indicator’s weekly briefing is *free* and packed with news and tools on the digital deception and OSINT beat. Sign up:

Deepfake videos of people are surging online. AI tools should be able to help, yet they can badly bungle image searches. So which consumer AI tools should you use to identify people? @mantzarlis.com ran more than 100 tests and found a winner: indicator.media/p/how-good-a...

I thought Lens was going to be the best way to identify people in sketchy videos. I was wrong indicator.media/p/how-good-a...

Wondering which free/affordable tools can help replace CrowdTangle and assist with social media monitoring? I’ll demo three tools for @indicator.media members today at 12:30. We will also have reps from companies to answer questions. Join Indicator and join us!

CrowdTangle is dead, Tweetdeck is behind a paywall, and social platforms are making it more difficult to monitor, search, and analyze content. I dive into three affordable, and in some cases partially free, tools to dig into accounts and content:

TikTok is paying actors less than $1000 to license their voice and likeness and make them availble to advertisers. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/b...

Today's Indicator Briefing gets you up to date on: 📍AI slop & deepfakes, including a Catholic bishop being impersonated 📍Why a fact checking project stopped using labels like "false" 📍AI tools for research/summarizing content Sign up for free to read