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

I alerted Meta in Feb to a network of ~100 hoax pages connected to Vietnam. Instead of shrinking, the network expanded—using AI slop, deceptive “static video” & hacked accounts to exploit algorithms for profit & influence. I just found another ~130 pages.

🚨Journalism job alert🚨 We're hiring an investigative reporter to join my team at @wired.com. We're looking for someone who has both traditional and non-traditional reporting skills (coding/data work/OSINT, etc). Fit the bill? Come work with me! condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CondeCareers...

Village Media, a network of local sites, is a rare bright spot in Canadian media. Along with doing solid local news, it gives back to the community through Random Acts of Kindness. The Toronto site just showed up at a community BBQ and gave out bikes, scooters, backpacks etc: youtu.be/EuNC_gh85Ow

New on @indicator.media: TikTok's creator rewards program offers significantly higher payouts for accounts geolocated in the US than in Brazil. This has led to a thriving Brazilian marketplace for US-based accounts facilitated by so-called "TikTok Dark" experts. indicator.media/p/tiktok-s-r...

Showing how well the American military's recruiting has been going by using AI-generated images of fake women in military uniforms And the Pentagon promoted it: x.com/dodresponse/... h/t @unbonfromage.bsky.social

looking for experts on online identity fraud and the marketplace for social media accounts for a piece on @indicator.media -- recommendations welcome!

Today's Indicator briefing: 📍 US academic explains why he's done with researching misinfo 📍 OSINT tips for investigating VSCO 📍 Deepfake law in Hong Kong 📍 TikTok slashes German trust & safety staff to replace w/ AI. Sign up for free to read:

New on @indicator.media: I found 88 TikTok accounts using AI avatars of real journalists to spread clickbaity misinformation in Spanish. Together they had 1.7 million followers and many times that in video views.

Truth Social AI gone woke smh

I realize nobody needs to hear this, but my Google Chrome cache/files was over 100 gigs lmao

NEW: I spoke to Daniel Heinen about the present and future of using AI for geolocation. We dug into how GeoSpy geolocates images—indoors & out— w/out metadata, how their approach differs from LLMs, ethical tensions, and use cases. Read it on Indicator: indicator.media/p/ai...

“Wikipedia editors have had to deal with an onslaught of AI-generated content filled with false information and phony citations. Already, the community of Wikipedia volunteers has mobilized to fight back against AI slop” www.theverge.com/report/75681...

In today's Briefing: I found 114 ads for AI nudifiers on Meta. The copy of the ads included the word "undress," which isn't a sophisticated term to watch out for. As always, I flagged these ads to Meta, which took them down. Google also took down a related app. indicator.media/p/ai-nudifie...

Today's Indicator briefing has: 📍New examples of nudifier ads on Meta, Trump health misinfo on TikTok 📍Guides for investigating algorithms and AI datasets 📍Research on AI exploits, misinfo about Russia-Ukraine war Sign up for free and read: indicator.media/p/ai...

New: I look at TikTok's "Footnotes", which launched with much fanfare last week in the US. How's it actually going? The answer depends on whether you appreciate comments about line dancing or the Wikipedia page for "ice" in videos that don't need fact-checking.

7 months since Zuck's vaunted moderation pivot, one of its core planks is still barely registering. @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social submitted 65 perfectly suitable community notes and only 3 got published -- presumably because not enough people rated the others. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

New: A few weeks ago, when my father-in-law died, the funeral home asked if we wanted to use AI to write his obituary. So I dug into it and found that it's the biggest new trend in "death care." Tens of thousands of AI obits have been made already. Often the families don't even know wapo.st/4okuxIg

The Post has not named a replacement for Kessler, nor did it respond to my questions about what is next for The Fact Checker. indicator.media/p/the-washin...

I wrote somethingfor @fullfact.org about the ways in which the disappearing archive makes their work even harder but more important. I'm a trustee & continue to be amazed at their resiliency in an age of AI slop and attacks against those who investigate accuracy. fullfact.org/technology/m...

The new Indicator Briefing (which is free to subscribe to) has: 📍 A new tool for detecting AI images, OSINT approaches for Reddit 📍 Research on chatbots, Russian military insignias, YouTube 📍 Must reads about disinfo, platforms, OSINT, media literacy indicator.media/p/de...

A nice thing: @mantzarlis.com and I were named to Project C's Top 50 Creator-Model Journalists list. We're in some amazing company. Read the full list: projectc.biz/top50creator... And subscribe @indicator.media for free to see what we're doing: indicator.media

This week's unsolved mystery: How did right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson grow by +2.2 million YouTube subscribers in Q2, dwarfing the growth of every other top political channel?

Pretty cool to see @indicator.media included in this list of awesome independent media!

YouTube channels are often sold and completely rebranded by a new owner, which can have big implications for platform integrity. I've got new data from the biggest study of sold/repurposed channels, and tips for how to ID repurposed YouTube channels: indicator.media/p/bu...

I love AI slop (the term, not the content itself) but it contains multitudes. In my latest for @indicator.media, I propose a taxonomy that differentiates it by form and purpose. Feedback welcome from slop savants! indicator.media/p/a-tentativ...

NEW with @santi4dc.bsky.social on @indicator.media: We estimate that 18 AI nudifiers made between 2.6 and 18.4 million dollars over the six months to May 2025.  We believe this to be the first estimate of the overall turnover of these instruments of abuse. Full 3,600 word report:

Today on Indicator: I found a network of 22 TikTok accounts that post videos of allegedly moribund celebrities to source leads for an advance fee scam. indicator.media/p/tiktok-has...

Thrilled to partner with The Guardian to have it republish my @indicator.media story about Diddy AI slop videos racking up views on YouTube. You can read for free here: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I published "The Indicator guide to connecting websites together using OSINT tools and methods." It's the most comprehensive guide to linking sites together to uncover ownership, connections, and funding. We're offering discounted memberships if you want to join & read it: indicator.media/p/in...