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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.


Anatomy of a TikTok scam: Following the money from viral videos to shady affiliate marketers

Anatomy of a TikTok scam: Following the money from viral videos to shady affiliate marketers

Videos promised users they could earn money by watching TikToks. Here's how we investigated the scheme

Jan 12, 2026

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19 min read

Briefing: Grok brings nonconsensual image abuse to the masses

Briefing: Grok brings nonconsensual image abuse to the masses

Plus: a new feature in the Meta Ad Library and a new Telegram investigation tool.

Jan 9, 2026

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16 min read

Workshop video: OSINT tools of the year

Workshop video: OSINT tools of the year

Awesome tools to help you find, analyze, extract, and collect information

Jan 8, 2026

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2 min read

Free tools to investigate YouTube videos, channels, and comments

Free tools to investigate YouTube videos, channels, and comments

How to dig into the dominant global video platform

Jan 5, 2026

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26 min read

Briefing: US State Dept restricts disinfo researchers, welcomes back a propagandist

Briefing: US State Dept restricts disinfo researchers, welcomes back a propagandist

Plus: a new reverse image search tool, tips for cleaning up your digital footprint, and law firms discover AI slop.

Dec 31, 2025

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11 min read

Briefing: Meta's fraudulent ad pipeline flows from China to you

Briefing: Meta's fraudulent ad pipeline flows from China to you

Plus: tools of the year and what OSINT practitioners need to know about AI videos

Dec 19, 2025

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14 min read

Briefing: Liam Neeson narrated an antivax documentary

Briefing: Liam Neeson narrated an antivax documentary

Plus: tools for analyzing Reddit and visualizing network graphs.

Dec 12, 2025

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12 min read

OSINT 2025: New and updated digital investigative tools of the year

OSINT 2025: New and updated digital investigative tools of the year

More than 45 tools to help you find, analyze, extract, and collect information

Dec 11, 2025

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23 min read

2025: The year tech embraced fakeness

2025: The year tech embraced fakeness

This year, powerful people, companies, and institutions welcomed digital deception like never before. The rest of us faced the consequences.

Dec 9, 2025

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30 min read

Briefing: Trump administration wants to ban foreign fact-checkers and online safety workers

Briefing: Trump administration wants to ban foreign fact-checkers and online safety workers

Plus: free tools for analyzing ads and extracting links and emails, and X gets fined by the EU.

Dec 5, 2025

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17 min read

Workshop video: How to find sensitive, publicly available documents

Workshop video: How to find sensitive, publicly available documents

Plus: how I found thousands of undisclosed ads on TikTok

Dec 3, 2025

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2 min read

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

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