Tonight at 7:00 PM EST I'll be playing DOOM 3 for charity on my Twitch channel! All proceeds go to @sickkidsvs.bsky.social to fund operations at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Drop by, hang out in the chat, and please consider donating to this great cause! www.twitch.tv/gianfiorel

A nice article about how my Friesonesian namesake — and cousin, if you didn’t know yet — @trbrtc.bsky.social combines social media sleuthing and traditional reporting to piece together complex stories for the Times’s Visual Investigations team.

My latest covering some of the strikes using US-made munitions used in Gaza.

Some people are questioning whether this is AI. One way to be certain is to geolocate the video, as AI still struggles to accurately recreate really world locations with enough fidelity to be successfully geolocated. The first question is what's the best information about where this was filmed?

Carney at Davos: "And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself." Trump at Davos:

It’s even more embarrassing than I imagined.

Great job, Nobel Committee.

NEW: Police—sheriffs, Texas state cops, and even ICE—can follow the location of your smart phone without a warrant. Yet, we know little about how this software has been used. via @texasobserver.org + @pulitzercenter.org www.texasobserver.org/texas-police...

New iMEdD interview on how open-source work grew from peer-to-peer info, why our verification and deliberation systems are failing, and how that collapse fuels splintered realities, Trump-era politics, and pressure on investigative journalism. lab.imedd.org/en/eliot-hig...

This Saturday, November 22 I'll be streaming a 12-hour gaming session to raise funds for Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children via @extralife4kids.bsky.social! That's right: I'll be playing video games from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM EST. Come join and donate for a good cause! www.twitch.tv/gianfiorel

Streets have been renamed, Ukrainian monuments removed, and murals painted over. Bellingcat investigates how apartment blocks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have been demolished to make way for a new Russian suburban utopia… www.bellingcat.com/uncategorize...

GeoSpy AI attempted to do a geolocation in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. However, nothing beats the human eye, as @annonemo.bsky.social showed that the correct location was actually 19.6 km from what the AI and it’s founder claimed it was: 32.113212, 35.133272.

tfw you're forced to listen to Trump

oh my goodness world leaders are rubbing sores in Egypt about Trump and the Nobel

Russia's Matryoshka disinformation campaign is now creating new content formats for Bellingcat. This is both the worst and best thing they've done, imo.

Last year @johannawild.bsky.social came into our Discord Server to discuss the process of updating the toolkit and why the relaunch was needed. You can listen back to that conversation here: rss.com/podcasts/bel...

Our new and improved Bellingcat Toolkit is one-year-old today! If you haven't used it yet its a one-stop shop for discovering useful open source tools, maintained by an amazing group of volunteers. You can find use cases, guidance and honest reviews for each tool. bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit

Our revamped toolkit page is one year old today! The toolkit helps researchers and journalists across the world do impactful work. Maintaining it with up-to-date entries and guides is a huge effort from our staff and volunteers. You can help us keep it up by donating: www.bellingcat.com/donate/

In April, authorities raided what they say was a Tren de Aragua gathering. Attendees say it was a birthday party. Among those detained included a homeless barber/DoorDash driver, and three people who fled Venezuela years ago *because of* that gang 🧵 www.texasobserver.org/officials-tr...

235 people were killed in April when the roof of the Jet Set nightclub came crashing down during a packed concert. We found that for years before the collapse, structural issues and warning signs went unaddressed. w/ @stepozzebon.bsky.social and @averyschmitz.bsky.social for CNN youtu.be/H5UpgvxSc1A

My latest. I heard about this growing up and spent the last few years seeing what FOIAs, interviews, and archives can tell us. It’s a glimpse into the murky, ruthless underworld of 1970s Texas. Grateful for my brilliant editors @gycsak.bsky.social @liseolsen.bsky.social @beaudonelly.bsky.social

From researching on Telegram to analyzing satellite imagery, the @journalismfestival.com offers free online recordings from past events. I have compiled a list of sessions that focus on, or are related to, open source research methods: t1p.de/mod4u. #OpenSourceResearch

Am I bad at posting? Yes. Will I get better at it? tbd. Anyways, I've written over 100 pieces at CityView. Here are a few I'm proud of, a thread 🧵:

PimEyes allows users to upload photos of faces in order to search the internet for pictures of people who look similar. Learn more about the tool in Bellingcat’s Online Investigation Toolkit: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/more... by @anisashabir.bsky.social #OpenSourceResearch

New to flight tracking? Our Flightradar24 toolkit guide by teaches you everything you need to know about the site, including when (not) to use it: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/more.... Written by @afko.bsky.social for @bellingcat.com's Online Investigation Toolkit.

NEWS: It began with Mahmoud Khalil. Now the Trump admin is trying to deport *hundreds* of students by vaguely saying they have criminal records—making them guess why. Some have traffic violations. Some didn't even commit a crime. One's "criminal record"? Apparently being a domestic violence victim.

"Hi Francesca, we are going to respectfully decline an interview" I am going to respectfully file a torrent of FOIA requests ... and you cannot stop me <3

As part of a large collaboration of a dozen newsrooms, led by @forbidden-stories.bsky.social, Bellingcat investigated two cases where journalists were targeted by the IDF shortly after they used drones to document Gaza from above.

This was a challenging but important piece to work on. Telling the stories of those attacked for showing the scale of destruction and helping illustrate that scale ourselves using a 3D model.

New: I wrote about the recent train hijacking by the militant group BLA in Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province. We geolocated the footage the group released, identifying the attack's actual location. @thomasbordeaux.bsky.social provided crucial geolocation insights: shorturl.at/OqSBO

"This is the first arrest of many to come" Folks: Believe the man. Take him seriously. He is telling you what he's going to do. If you think that you or anyone you know will not be impacted by this kind of gross violation of due process, I'll catch you at the bottom of the slipper slope.

A controversial federal program that permits local cops to act as roving ICE agents in their communities has been dead since 2012, as it led to racial profiling. Texas police agencies and others around the nation are bringing it back. 🧵 www.texasobserver.org/local-state-...

Incredible referencing guide for Google StreetView, and therefore for geolocation in general: license plates, sign posts, types of bollards, roof tiles, etc. Thanks @aric.bsky.social for sharing. plonkit.net/guide

Microsoft’s Azure AI Video Indexer is able to detect people and objects in videos. It can also be used to extract key topics and to generate transcripts. Learn more about the tool (including ethical concerns) in our new toolkit text by @anisashabir.bsky.social: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/more...

During his first week back in office, Trump relied on false and misleading information through a flurry of executive actions, press conferences and interviews. Read more: apnews.com/article/dona...

Most open source researchers rely on search engines to do reverse image searches. However, there are also niche tools like RootAbout: It lets you upload a picture and checks it against Internet Archive collections. @anisashabir.bsky.social tested it: bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit/more...

Breaking: Meta ends fact-checking, presumably because reality is now optional. Coming soon: gravity is just a theory, and the moon is actually a giant space cookie. Critical truth update failed: installing flat earth patch. #MetaVerse​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...