I would actually be interested to see what you made of it if you read one of their investigations right through. This is the last one I read: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-...icated-in-murders-of-three-russian-activists/
Bellingcat (OSINT)
- Thread starter DLaurent
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luka
Well-known member
i'll read it as spy fiction and let you know what i think.
sufi
lala
I've read lots of them,
they are a bit obsessive about military materiel in a way that makes me squeamish (and feel like they are spooks or military?), and also as luke says they let themselves down with their dogged focus on russia russia russia, i mean they do other stuff too (like isis isis isis) but they seem to lack impartiality.
i was gonna say what about Yemen, but actually they have done masses of work on Yemen that is highly critical of US/UK and Saudi https://yemen.bellingcat.com/ so 🤷♀️
the whole OSINT thingthey have kicked off is great though, and seems to have inspired a lot of people to act as online observers scrutinising stuff that needs scrutinising
Was gonna say their Yemen investigations,
i;d say Russia are a fairly unique case, No other power as lose to us as are obviously mendacious, corrupt, actively engaged in assassinations here and in their own ountry etc Their particular brand of criminality is a perfect fit for OSINT techniques as well. which explains some of the interest.
That podcast I linked above talks about that - "network effects"
sufi
lala
well yeh but no there are lots of countries engaged in that skullduggery, russia are maybe an easier target than say israel or iran, but definitely russia looms large if bellingcat is your lens on world affairs,
But there isn't any state of comparable size and power acting as they do - did you hear or read Putin's recent speech where he laid into liberal democracy? It was basically, that's over, it makes you gay, roll over and make way for the strongmen. There's skulduggery and espionage and then then there's having those things as absolute central to what you do as a state, alongside an undermining of truth. Cliche, I know but the attitude to truth shown reminds me of O'Brien in 1984. 2 + 2 = 5.
I suppose I see it as there's a central player that's undermining truth vs usage of emergent technologies that make truth discernible. That's what i mean when I say the two are a good match for each other.
Anyway, on network effects: http://theplausiblepossible.com/it-takes-a-network-to-defeat-a-network/
An internet troll movement was able to instrumentalize pre-existing USian racism and build a movement that helped launch Trump into the highest position in the US (unfortunately not the sun). Parts of this movement then metastasized into a semi-decentralized digital cult that ultimately led to a conspiracy-driven meme-ified coup attempt on the US capitol with nazis and militias in tow....
Most people have a direct understanding of networked conflict informed not by theoretical understanding, but rather by their lived experience of using the technologies and seeing things happen for themselves.
An internet troll movement was able to instrumentalize pre-existing USian racism and build a movement that helped launch Trump into the highest position in the US (unfortunately not the sun). Parts of this movement then metastasized into a semi-decentralized digital cult that ultimately led to a conspiracy-driven meme-ified coup attempt on the US capitol with nazis and militias in tow....
Most people have a direct understanding of networked conflict informed not by theoretical understanding, but rather by their lived experience of using the technologies and seeing things happen for themselves.
luka
Well-known member
One of the most interesting things about the TIME article was how the central control tower was able to beam out orders to the spontaneous street rabble that they were not to perform any counter-protests but to stay indoors and watch the Trump-rabble fall into the trap that had been prepared for them.
luka
Well-known member
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions
web.archive.org
this one. all the conspiracy heads have been going ga-ga over it.
This is wrong btw. I should have taken into account China and what's happening with the Uighurs.
Thanks - I'll read it today.The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions
this one. all the conspiracy heads have been going ga-ga over it.
Well they directly work with the OCCRP who are supported by:
OCCRP is supported by the generosity of the Bay and Paul Foundation, the Catherine Hawkins Foundation, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), Google, IJ4EU, the International Center for Journalists, Luminate/Omidyar Network, Beyond reporting the news—often in environments where the free press is under threat—we are working to reinvent global investigative journalism for the 21st century to ensure that the media can fulfill its central role as democracy’s greatest watchdog.
So there's no real need for conspiracy thinking here. They are good at what they do, and they aren't directly shills of the US state, but it would be absurd to claim this is a grass routes investigation project, something danny is almost hinting at here. And of course saving democracy indicates how much they are implicated in their own brand of depending on the efficacy of great power disinformation.
I am interested in a lot of what they do, don't get me wrong, but I do read them with those caveats in mind rather than fanboying over them. Objective journalism is a bit of a misnomer.