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Oliver Buchannon
Craig Silverman

I'm the co-founder of Indicator and have been investigating digital deception for more than a decade.


Briefing: A Mexican journalists' club promotes Russian disinformation

Briefing: A Mexican journalists' club promotes Russian disinformation

Plus: new and updated OSINT bookmarklets to help with your investigations.

Nov 28, 2025

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8 min read

What investigators need to know about X’s new “About this account” feature

What investigators need to know about X’s new “About this account” feature

X account location information is nuanced and tricky. Here's how to evaluate it.

Nov 26, 2025

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18 min read

29 OSINT  tools and tips I discovered at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference

29 OSINT tools and tips I discovered at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference

A new AI tool kinda blew my mind

Nov 25, 2025

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15 min read

Briefing: Good news on the AI slop front. No, really!

Briefing: Good news on the AI slop front. No, really!

Plus: Sri Lanka's "Facebook ads king", and advanced archival OSINT

Nov 21, 2025

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12 min read

Thousands of undisclosed ads flooded TikTok to sell AI study apps

Thousands of undisclosed ads flooded TikTok to sell AI study apps

Maryland-based Mindgrasp used an army of student creators (and actors) to promote its study tools, without disclosing that they were paid.

Nov 20, 2025

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15 min read

Briefing: Facebook hoax merchant gets "Truthed" by Trump

Briefing: Facebook hoax merchant gets "Truthed" by Trump

Plus: we unlocked our paywalled Q&A with the CEO of GeoSpy, an AI-powered geolocation tool.

Nov 14, 2025

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12 min read

The Indicator Guide to hunting for documents and files in open buckets, servers, and directories

The Indicator Guide to hunting for documents and files in open buckets, servers, and directories

How to find interesting and potentially confidential documents sitting on a publicly-accessible server or website

Nov 12, 2025

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26 min read

Briefing: Meta's multi-billion dollar scam ad business

Briefing: Meta's multi-billion dollar scam ad business

Plus: Fox News falls for racist AI slop, and a tool for investigating Discord servers.

Nov 7, 2025

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14 min read

Scam ads are flooding social media. These former Meta staffers have a plan

Scam ads are flooding social media. These former Meta staffers have a plan

Rob Leathern and Rob Goldman, who both worked at Meta, are launching a new nonprofit that aims to add transparency to an increasingly opaque, scam-filled social media ecosystem.

Nov 6, 2025

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10 min read

Workshop video: Tips for using digital ad libraries in investigations

Workshop video: Tips for using digital ad libraries in investigations

Follow the money, track narratives, research ads

Nov 5, 2025

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2 min read

Briefing: Grokipedia applies a right-wing filter to Wikipedia

Briefing: Grokipedia applies a right-wing filter to Wikipedia

Plus: an easy way to search for objects within a video and a new web reconnaissance tool

Oct 31, 2025

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12 min read

TikTok sympathy scams use racial slurs and insults to sell products

TikTok sympathy scams use racial slurs and insults to sell products

TikTok removed close to 200 accounts after Indicator reached out

Oct 30, 2025

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8 min read

Briefing: People are posting fake images of an X feature that hasn't launched yet

Briefing: People are posting fake images of an X feature that hasn't launched yet

Plus: how to create a free, private AI setup

Oct 24, 2025

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12 min read

A guide to Indicator Guides

A guide to Indicator Guides

We recently added new information to some of our signature OSINT guides

Oct 20, 2025

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4 min read

Briefing: X tests new way to fight inauthentic activity and a major scam takedown

Briefing: X tests new way to fight inauthentic activity and a major scam takedown

Plus: a new free OSINT bookmarklet that helps you investigate WordPress sites

Oct 17, 2025

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12 min read

The Indicator Guide to investigating digital ad libraries

The Indicator Guide to investigating digital ad libraries

Ad repositories can help with backgrounding people and companies, and with investigating influence and disinformation campaigns

Oct 14, 2025

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49 min read

Briefing: YouTube gives banned channels a second chance

Briefing: YouTube gives banned channels a second chance

Plus: tools for tracking sketchy ships, viewing JSON files, and more

Oct 10, 2025

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9 min read

How to tell if a social media account is monetized

How to tell if a social media account is monetized

Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and X are giving billions to creators. Here's how to see who's getting paid

Oct 7, 2025

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2 min read

Briefing: Sloppy Sora surges on the charts

Briefing: Sloppy Sora surges on the charts

Plus: changes to Facebook search that you need to know about

Oct 3, 2025

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12 min read

Explicit ads for nudifiers and AI girlfriend apps continue to plague Meta

Explicit ads for nudifiers and AI girlfriend apps continue to plague Meta

Indicator found thousands of ads that featured bare breasts and simulated sex acts

Sep 30, 2025

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3 min read

Workshop video: Web capture tools for websites and social media

Workshop video: Web capture tools for websites and social media

Hands on with some cool free tools

Sep 29, 2025

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1 min read

Briefing: YouTube bends the knee

Briefing: YouTube bends the knee

Plus: Spotify rolls out anti-slop measures, and inside Russia's copycat "fact-checking" group

Sep 26, 2025

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12 min read

OSINT tips for investigating WordPress sites

OSINT tips for investigating WordPress sites

How to find author accounts and inspect images, files, and plugins

Sep 22, 2025

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2 min read

Briefing: Finally, some data about Meta's Community Notes program

Briefing: Finally, some data about Meta's Community Notes program

Plus: Tools for archiving YouTube videos, identifying manhole covers, and scanning scam infrastructure

Sep 19, 2025

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12 min read

The Indicator Guide to tools for capturing webpages and social media content

The Indicator Guide to tools for capturing webpages and social media content

We tested 12 tools ranging from full-featured continuous capture apps to one-off screenshot extensions for grabbing long webpages

Sep 17, 2025

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35 min read

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Indicator is your essential guide to understanding and investigating digital deception.


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