Investigating ads

Resources

The Indicator Guide to investigating digital ad libraries

Oct 14, 2025

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49 min read

The Indicator Guide to investigating digital ad libraries

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

Craig Silverman

Aid workers looking for jobs on LinkedIn face spammy websites, scammy recruiters, and sham listings

Sep 4, 2025

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2 min read

Aid workers looking for jobs on LinkedIn face spammy websites, scammy recruiters, and sham listings

LinkedIn deleted 27 pages with almost 6 million followers

Alexios Mantzarlis

Reporting

How a researcher provided a critical piece of evidence in a lawsuit against Meta

Jul 31, 2025

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2 min read

How a researcher provided a critical piece of evidence in a lawsuit against Meta

Inside a previously unreported investigative experiment that helped counter a key claim about Meta's ad system

Craig Silverman

Reporting

Hundreds of Meta ads with fake virus alerts tricked people into downloading suspicious apps

Jul 24, 2025

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2 min read

Hundreds of Meta ads with fake virus alerts tricked people into downloading suspicious apps

The ads falsely told people that their phone had been infected with viruses, was compromised by hackers, or that their Facebook account would be permanently disabled.

Craig Silverman

OSINT

Jul 9, 2025

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1 min read

5 new (to me) OSINT tools for researching YouTube, Meta ads, and more

How to find out if a YouTube video is monetized, analyze election and social issues ads in new ways, and refine your Google queries

Craig Silverman

Reporting

Meta ran thousands of pornbait ads for fraudulent networks that monetize with Google

May 21, 2025

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2 min read

Meta ran thousands of pornbait ads for fraudulent networks that monetize with Google

Nothing says "healthy online advertising ecosystem" like deceptive ads on one platform being used to drive traffic to deceptive ads on another platform

Alexios Mantzarlis

OSINT

A look at the Information Laundromat website analysis tool

Sep 5, 2024

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2 min read

A look at the Information Laundromat website analysis tool

The Alliance For Securing Democracy created a free OSINT tool to examine the content and metadata of websites

Craig Silverman

Piracy

Feb 1, 2023

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3 min read

Investigating Google's Ad Business

Here's a methodology for identifying piracy sites making money with Google ads

Craig Silverman

OSINT

Free tools for investigating digital ads

Dec 15, 2022

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3 min read

Free tools for investigating digital ads

Originally published Feb. 17, 2022

Craig Silverman