Notices by Bellingcat (bellingcat@mstdn.social), page 2

It's Saturday which means this week's Bellingcat open source research challenges are now fully unlocked 🔓
How have you been getting on? If you've not had a chance to have a go at the puzzles yet amongst holiday gatherings you can find them here on https://challenge.bellingcat.com/

Want to impress family or friends? Ask them for a photo featuring a shadow and follow the steps GeoGuessr pro @georainbolt does here. Using Bellingcat's Shadow Finder tool, you can narrow down the likely location the photo was taken in. https://youtu.be/pQIjDPFgdJA?si=Ml5dTEtFTpr5ftDR

We've added brand new exercises to our Open Source Challenge site! It's been great seeing people work together to solve these over the last few weeks. Let us know how you get on and what puzzles keep you guessing... https://challenge.bellingcat.com/

We spoke to Eliot Higgins on the past and future of open source research in our final Stage Talk of the year. Find it on all podcast platforms under 'Stage Talks with Bellingcat' now, like on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Vwba00BFuHpuwe4i3itZA?si=PefkdDIATx-LF92sdpqKSw

Last month a visit from Israeli football club Maccabi in Amsterdam resulted in violence erupting throughout the city. To gain a better understanding of the events, we worked with Dutch newspaper @Trouw to analyse videos that circulated online. https://www.trouw.nl/binnenland/wat-gebeurde-er-vorige-maand-in-amsterdam~b0bc9472/

Have you tried our new Online Investigations Toolkit yet? In our latest Tech Series video, we invited some of the volunteers that worked on the toolkit to present their favourite features and share how the toolkit can elevate your own investigations.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3GQ6mSGqM

A violent brawl during an opposition march leaves a political figure deceased in a puddle of his own blood. A year on and the event is still shrouded in mystery.
In our latest, we investigate the circumstances around Dido Kakisingi’s death

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/12/10/retracing-the-congolese-march-where-dido-kakisingi-was-killed/?utm_source=mastodon

A Colombian national goes missing. But then his identity documents appear in a video posted by the Sudanese Armed Forces. He isn't alone, several hundred Colombian ex-soldiers were recruited to fight with the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan according to media reports. Bellingcat’s Carlos Gonzales investigates… https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/12/13/colombian-mercenaries-in-transit-to-sudan-via-libya-what-do-we-know/?utm_source=mastodon

Tomorrow we’re kicking off our live anniversary celebrations on YouTube! Join us for two days of panels and presentations about 10 years of open source research. Find the schedule below and access the stream here: https://www.youtube.com/@bellingcatofficial/streams

Bellingcat’s Galen Reich is presenting his latest tool! The Bellingcat Filename Finder is a browser extension that shows you the original filename of images on Google Maps. This can provide useful clues for your investigations. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2024/10/15/google-maps-image-filename-finder-tool/?utm_source=mastodon

When an image is uploaded to Google Maps it gets tagged to a location, either directly or as part of a review. Anyone on the internet can view the image, but the filename is not visible by default.

Depending on the type of file, filenames can include the time and date of when the picture was taken. And in some cases can give some information about the type of device used to create the image.

In this example the file is named: PXL_20240830_150806479.jpg. “PXL” indicates that it was taken on a Google Pixel device. The date format indicates it was taken on Aug. 30, 2024, but in some cases the filename can change to the date the photo was uploaded. That could look like this: “2024-08-30.jpg”.

Great news! Bellingcat just launched the new Online Investigations Toolkit. In the toolkit you can discover tools for everything from satellite imagery analysis, to social media scraping, transportation tracking or archiving research material. https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2024/09/24/bellingcat-online-investigations-toolkit/?utm_source=mastodon

Bellingcat explores the mysterious Hungarian company linked to the exploding pagers from Tuesday’s attack in Lebanon that left at least 12 dead and almost 3000 injured. Researchers found an unreported name associated with the consulting firm. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/09/20/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-exploding-pagers/?utm_source=mstdn

Rather than being published as journalistic work, output from this project will be aimed at informing court cases and fact-finding mechanisms on a national and international level.

You need to have experience conducting ethical open source investigations, both as an individual and as part of a team, be fluent in Arabic or Hebrew and have a deep understanding of the conflict. The deadline to apply is September 8. Apply here: https://www.bellingcat.com/consultancy-opportunity-at-bellingcat-open-source-analyst-justice-accountability-team/

Our Justice & Accountability team is looking for an open source analyst on a part-time consultancy contract basis. They will collect and analyse information from open sources regarding the conflict in Palestine and Israel which will be used for accountability purposes...🧵

Latest: Bellingcat researcher Jake Godin uses satellite imagery to demonstrate the scale of destruction currently occurring along the Rafah border in Gaza. We geolocated individuals' homes and conflict spots which have been a part of wide scale damage. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/08/27/satellite-imagery-shows-vast-destruction-in-rafah/?utm_source=mastodon

Violent riots by groups associated with far-right networks have erupted in the UK. Social media videos of groups setting fire to hotels, police vans and breaking into shops are everywhere. It’s important to archive this material so it doesn’t disappear. Here's how to do that… 🧵