How well did X's Community Notes handle misinformation about the identity of Ahmed al-Ahmed, the man who disarmed one of the Bondi Beach terrorists? It's complicated... new on @indicator.media:

US tech leaders say we need climate-disrupting and water-depleting data centers because we need the US to be the leaders in GenAI innovation. Apparently their idea of innovation is overwhelming our information ecosystems with deception & manipulation.

New on @indicator.media: I asked 53 experts of digital deception from 15 countries to rate the key figures and moments of 2025.

New from me! After we reached out to the owner of these deepfake porn sites, they were removed offline and he deleted his socials. Each time a site goes down, it's a win for me. Hopefully this guy never tries to get them up and running again. Check out our investigation!

From imperialist plushies to multi-legged Macrons, it's been another great year for AI fails. Here's 35 notable AI-generated errors from 2025:

I spent the last 12 months collecting and testing a wide range of digital investigative/OSINT tools. You can learn about my favorites in my rundown of more than 45 new, updated, or new-to-me tools from 2025:

I've been investigating digital deception for ~15yrs and 2025 was the worst year. VC-backed bot farms, endless AI slop, industrial level scams, abusive AI nudifiers, Meta paying $ for hoaxes... Deception was legitimized, monetized & shoved down the public’s throat: indicator.media/p/2025-the-y...

From the moment Zuck shot his hostage video on Jan 7, the tone was set for a year of rampant digital deception. Platforms rolled back interventions on misinformation, bad actors embraced AI, brainrot infected startup culture, and scam states thrived. Indicator's 2025 Wrapped for Digital Deception:

New from me: It's high time for T&S leaders at big tech platforms to speak up. We need to hear the US-based VPs of T&S at Apple, Google, Meta, TikTok and other platforms say in one voice that content moderation is not censorship.

Today on Indicator: 2025 has been a banner year for AI nudifiers. I found another 9,000 ads on Meta since my last report, bringing the total for this year to 25,000. The top 10 nudifying websites got 10 million views in October.

Today on @indicator.media: X's Community Notes is shrinking...but not in Japan.

A major perk for @indicator.media members is our monthly workshop. This Friday, @craigsilverman.bsky.social will walk folks through how to look for valuable documents hiding in open air, the topic of our latest guide. Upgrade to paid now to attend the workshop!

Today on @indicator.media's (free) Briefing: A twinkle of optimism on the AI slop front as TikTok and Google roll out tools to filter and detect AI content. I remain bearish about generative AI and info quality. But I’ll celebrate developments that increase user agency and platform transparency.

TikTok & Instagram have been deluged by thousands of videos from female students that praise Jenni, an AI study app. They say it's better than ChatGPT. They say it can improve your grades. What don't they say? That they were paid to promote Jenni.

So fun to see @indicator.media’s audit of AI labels being cited in places as different as Private Eye and The Hindu (The piece: indicator.media/p/tech-platf...)

Sensitive, confidential & interesting docs are sitting out in the open on the internet. Do you know how to find them? My new @indicator.media Guide dives into Google dorks & tools that can uncover publicly available docs on websites and in unsecured buckets: indicator.media/p/guide-to-h... #osint

Incredible stuff on LinkedIn. Cofounder of AI notetaker says they told early customers that there's an "AI that'll join a meeting.” But it was really just him and cofounder joining & manually taking notes. No AI. Comments flame him. He posts reply trying to kind of walk it back. Overall: Total bait.

Trump posted a screenshot of a totally false claim about Obama collecting gov royalties for use of the name "Obamacare" (lmao) What's notable is the hoax came from a site + FB page network that I reported is earning big money from Meta's content monetization program: indicator.media/p/brakes-are...

Interesting sponsored content from Meta in Canada

For years, I’ve been obsessed with a number. What’s the #? It’s the amount Meta earns per year from scam ads. Thanks to @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social, we know it: $16 billion. Our free @indicator.media Briefing looks at what needs to happen now that we know the number: indicator.media/p/briefing-m...

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