We are Bellingcat

The more I learn about Bellingcat the more intrigued I am. I've written about them previously after hearing one of their investigative journalists, Charlotte Godart, speak at the International Symposium on Online Journalism. I was pretty amazed that there's a group like that out there, and that they are doing such heavy-hitting work – work that you'd typically think of coming from extremely well-known and well-funded groups like the Times or Post. In the investigation that Charlotte was talking about they were capturing and verifying instances of violence against reporters in the U.S. mainly around police violence protests. They found that police were specifically targeting journalists, and were using social media to place and confirm these complaints.

What I love most about this project is that Bellingcat would take all of the evidence that they found, package it up, and send it to the organization that issued the complaint, basically ensuring that their complaint would be verified and upheld. Without their work it would be incredibly hard for media groups, many of which were small local underfunded and understaffed outlets, to validate complaints. It's too easy otherwise to say that it never happened, or that the journalist wasn't identifiable as a member of the media – that sort of thing. It's such a cool thing that they're out there protecting other journalists. And if you browse their site you'll see that they've been doing exactly this kind of thing for years: going after dictators, unearthing details about alt-right movements, or finding details about assassinations of journalists overseas.

From the very little I know about them they seem to be a relatively small and scrappy group punching miles above their weight. Not only that but they "open source" some their methods. You can find guides on their site for things like Using the Sun and the Shadows for Geolocation or Investigate[ing] TikTok Like A Pro. I really like everything about this group, their cause, their inclination to share their data and methods, the fact that they're sticking up for journalists and doing their best to fill an apparent gap brought about by weakened local journalism. I've also learned that they've just published a book called We Are Bellingcat An Intelligence Agency for the People, and I'm very keen to pick it up.

I often think that if I wasn't working on climate this is the space I'd want to be in. Not only is it such a critical field, but it's also amazing and exciting to see how much of an outsized impact a relatively small group of people can have. It's also incredible to see the creative ways that they're wielding tech to combat injustice and tyranny.