I had been largely unaware of the work, or even, indeed, the existence of Bellingcat until I read in the press of their research into the Novichok poisonings of Alexei Navalny and then the Skripals in Salisbury.

This account of the origins and growth of Bellingcat is fascinating. One of the reviewer’s comments splashed across the cover of the book says that it ‘reads like a thriller’, and that is no exaggeration.

Belllingcat was founded by Eliot Higgins. Working in a job that did not engage him fully, he started following news stories and in particular YouTube clips about events in the Syrian Civil War. Higgins found that by dextrous use of applications such as Google Earth, he could pinpoint the locations of some of the clips that were being published. From these he was able to validate or challenge many of the claims being made in social media. He expanded his findings into a blog, which in turn put him in contact with other fact checkers, and developed a network of likeminded associates who could review and geolocate the site of apparent atrocities. From this start, the work of Bellingcat developed into an independent fact checking agency, always making a point of using open-source material to ensure transparency.

Higgins is frank and modest about the manner in which he worked, which adds to the charm of the story. His work has not always been popular, and he has received many threats, which he takes as validation of the importance of his work, and the veracity of his reporting. There is always a risk that such a work might descend into self-justification or self-righteousness, but Higgins avoids such traps. This account is a fine exemplar of the transparency and clarity that Bellingcat espouse. ( )

A lengthy and somewhat tedious 242 pages of humble bragging includes such classic lines as "..Mum Mum look at me...I'm super clever and the teacher has given me a gold star for using google...can I have a biscuit..." two stars for the lovely picture of a bowler hat on the softback edition ( )

I'm embarrassed to say that, going into this, I had never heard of Bellingcat. Higgins goes into great detail as to how they started online sleuthing, based largely on social media, Youtube, and some bought or stolen Russian databases. I loved all the detail. And what successes they have achieved!
The presentation feels a bit scattershot, with lots of mostly anecdotal stories, told chronologically, with larger morals mixed in. Overall, though, much in the same way that the name "Bellingcat" doesn't resonate with me, the writing just felt a bit dull. Perhaps this is somewhat inevitable, given the tedious nature of much of the work—browsing online videos, geolocating images based on Google Earth—but I still think that the book could have been more exciting.

> RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan (who conducted the infamous interview with the two Skripal poisoning suspects), said in 2012 that she did not believe in journalistic objectivity, and characterised her operation as an arm of Russian information warfare. ‘It’s impossible to start making a weapon only when the war has already started!’ she told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. ‘The Defense Ministry isn’t fighting anyone at the moment, but it’s ready for defense. So are we.’

> So here’s what we do,” the mouse says. “We hang a bell around the cat’s neck, and he’ll never catch us again.” The other mice burst into applause. They have a plan; they’ll be saved. Only one problem. Who’ll put a bell on the cat?’ That was it: our name and our mission. Belling the cats.

> Most damning were the local’s close-ups of the car-dealership billboard. The Russian generals had said the corner of the sign contained an address in Ukrainian-held territory. On the actual billboard there was no address whatsoever. They had simply falsified it

> Another insight of Henk’s is that users of Facebook who click ‘love’ on a post rather than simply ‘like’ tend to have open personalities: they probably have not locked down their privacy settings.

> As for the elite murder and subversion team, we suspect that our investigations led to its disbandment. Since our reports, we have tracked members’ locations and found several reassigned to remote areas, given important-sounding administrative jobs but with all signs pointing to them being demoted. ( )

The creator of Bellingcat, an open source investigation organization that seeks to "act as a firewall against disinformation," describes the evolution of his project, supported by numerous and impressive key investigations. I do not closely follow international affairs, especially armed conflicts, so I appreciated learning more about the political situations in Syria and Ukraine as well as the Skripal poisonings. The author provides fascinating details about the methodology that Bellingcat uses to "identify, verify, and amplify" online evidence.

My main criticism of this book is that Bellingcat's founder wrote it. I would have liked to read an account written by a disinterested third party (perhaps an academic researcher) who would have included objective assessments of Bellingcat as well as examples of its failed investigations. I think Bellingcat is great! I just would have appreciated a more well rounded book. I would have also liked to read about how the concept of information ownership, including copyright, has impacted open source investigation.

Recommended for all libraries. ( )

I’ve awarded this book 5 stars not because it’s perfect but because it’s that important. Should be on the syllabus for every school and every university everywhere as a guide to understanding, not just the pitfalls of social media sites and news media in general, but as a primer on how to use open source materials to investigate what’s going on in the world.
My criticisms of the book are that:

a) a lot of the detail should have gone into an appendix to give space for a higher level analysis of open source and what it can do and

b) like many authors he attributes too much to so-called AI when what he’s really referring to is advanced algorithms used in modern software. I am not arguing that we shouldn’t be worried about deepfakes and programs using complex algorithms but that AI has become a meaningless term used by everybody to describe programs that have zero intelligence. Name me a modern piece of software that does not claim to be AI-based. This is not a trivial point as it feeds into a mindset that blinds people as to what is really going on: there are no AI machines, only corporations that want us to think what they are doing is cleverer than it really is. AI is merely the prejudices of programmers and their sponsors built into code.

My reservations aside I still think this is an important book that deserves not just to be on everyone’s bookshelf but to be read, understood and acted upon. ( )