Sep 29, 2026 · 26 min
Bellingcat turns open data into evidence
How Bellingcat finds the truth in the age of AI
As synthetic media and fragmented platforms make shared facts harder to establish, open-source investigation offers a practical route from uncertainty to accountability.
- 1Eliot Higgins explains how satellite imagery, flight records, video and geolocation help ordinary people verify competing claims.
- 2Bellingcat’s 33,000-person Discord community combines crowdsourced research with moderation and evidence standards to filter misinformation.
- 3Open-source investigations have moved from informal internet sleuthing into work that can support international organizations and courts.
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Higgins describes how investigators synchronized videos and geolocated cameras to clarify what happened in the Renee Nicole Good shooting.
The brief
AI-generated images, videos and identities are making reality harder to verify, especially as major events produce competing narratives across fragmented platforms.
Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat, explains how ordinary people use satellite imagery, flight records, online video and geolocation to test what happened.
The investigation into the Renee Nicole Good shooting shows the method in practice: synchronize footage, locate cameras and use public evidence to clarify events.
Bellingcat’s 33,000-person Discord community verifies videos, identifies synthetic material and builds tools for research while enforcing moderation and evidence standards.
The technology segment shifts to tighter police license-plate searches, claims of an FBI data breach by Shiny Hunters and humanoid robots on a fashion runway.
Bellingcat’s work now reaches international organizations and courts, suggesting that open-source research can turn online sleuthing into legal accountability.