Data scientist and researcher, using open sources to expose far-right networks Bylines @bellingcat.com @texasobserver.org
28,080 followers 985 following 433 posts
view profile on Bluesky 
Researchers at Texas State University examined 189 drownings and found no evidence of the “Rainey Street Ripper” — a rumored serial killer in Austin. But conspiracy theories aren’t easy to squash. Skeptics online have turned on both police and the study’s authors. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/02/n...
Anything beyond their professional information, such as home address, personal email address, personal phone number, is potentially dicey. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
Patriot Front founder Thomas Rousseau loves Jefferson, just don't get him started on "those filthy rumors"
In their eyes, the biggest thing Thomas Jefferson was wrong about is miscegenation
the basic argument of these guys is that lincoln was wrong, douglass was wrong, jefferson was wrong.
Literally indistinguishable from the manifesto of neo-fascist group Patriot Front
Vance follows a coterie of online Nazis on X, has described Curtis Yarvin as a major intellectual influence, and openly attacks immigrants in blood and soil terms. The response of most of the political press? "Doesn't look like anything to me."
I recommend consulting with a lawyer before posting restricted personal information about him or any other federal law enforcement officers
The ICE agent with a "SEND ME" patch who was reportedly racially profiling drivers in Washington DC is Jason Christopher Perez of Austin, Texas. Additional footage I received matches pictures from social media of his arm tattoos. And an ICE email address with his name appears in a data breach.
These pleas for money have become routine, unfortunately, but the bottom line is that Meduza needs nearly to double its support base over the next few months, or it will cease to exist as it has for a decade. Without this dramatic donation growth, the Meduza you know goes away.
This is a smart move by Owen. Alex is a sinking ship: he hitched his wagon too tight to Trump and now has to argue that DHS and Epstein aren't actually that bad. Also a judge ordered last month that InfoWars be liquidated.
Here's what it looks like in Pinpoint with OCR-ed text. You have to read a *lot* of the diary to pick up how vowels in particular are transliterated. For example, highlighted word below is "continuing" I've seen a major outlet mis-"translate" a key word or two in their coverage.
Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition
Dear @bsky.app please do something about your video upload speed. I’ve always found it rough when I’m live posting OTG, waving some of it off to cell coverage. Today I was uploading at home on my WiFi, in a major city. We like it over here and faster upload speeds would make the experience better
Had a chance to stop a member of the Guard and ask whether they carried any guidance on their person about Posse Comitatus Act (and/or a list of "exceptions" like the troops in LA were given per DOJ). He didn't seem sure what PCA is but did show me this doc he had in his pocket on rules of force.
In its alleged fight against antisemitism, the Trump administration has relied on two groups with murky funders—one of which is in Israel. Here's my deep dive @thebaffler.com into Canary Mission and Betar, two extreme Zionist groups at the heart of Trump's crackdown. thebaffler.com/latest/for-b...
Yeah I read theory
Trump take LEGO www.404media.co/lego-stops-s...
Footage filmed in Indonesia's Jakarta yesterday, during anti-government protests, shows a person hit by an Indonesian police vehicle. The person later died. Today, protests have escalated in his name. Geolocation of footage: -6.201613, 106.807475
It's the only way I can win more awards!
We just won our first ‘Online Journalism Award.’ Prem Thakker spent over a year pressing the US State Department on its disregard for Palestinian life, including six-year-old Hind Rajab, as it continues to send weapons to Israel. Watch our award-winning coverage here: zeteo.com/p/hind-killi...
I don't think I've ever seen someone write "shitposting" with a hyphen. True shit-poster.
Today is the funniest possible day for this to be posted
When I started doing journalism five years ago I did not think that I would win an award like this. Now I fully intend to abuse the phrase "innovative award winning investigative journalist" to the fullest extent possible.
New from me for @thestranger.com With Feucht coming to Seattle this weekend I took some time to lay out his playbook, in detail. Understanding how the rage machine works will help folks respond while keeping those most vulnerable safe www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...
OK, wow, wasn't expecting this but honored to be part of it, big thanks once again to @stevanzetti.bsky.social and @texasobserver.org for taking a chance on me.
Very validating that "spending hours scrolling Nazi TikTok" counts as innovation
Identifying the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas members who assaulted a mixed-race family last summer is probably the investigation I'm most proud of so far. I'm thrilled that its impact was recognized and helped win Steven and I this award.
I'm so honored to have won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism small newsroom award alongside @tristanl.ee. I also have to thank @kylebazgo.bsky.social, who was a crucial partner in one of the articles, and our editor @gusbova.bsky.social awards.journalists.org/entries/open...
NEW: Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak denied knowing Epstein's activities after his 2019 arrest. But hacked emails show his assistant sent him 2 articles about Epstein in 2011. And in 2016, Epstein forwarded Barak an email from Alan Dershowitz referencing allegations. san.com/cc/the-pm-an...
I believe Isaiah 6:8: "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
If anyone has additional images or video of this guy, especially footage that shows his tattoos, please DM me
Do you have any higher-res images or video of him that shows his tattoos? I have a lead and am trying to confirm it. Feel free to DM me.
Finding key information shared at council meetings takes time and effort. Today, we've launched a tool that allows you to search verbatim quotes from council meetings in the UK and Ireland, without the need to watch long recordings or sift through extensive notes. council-search.bellingcat.com
"Thx for the hospitality. Great, impressive island" is not a good sentence to have emailed Jeffrey Epstein in 2014.
The Trump administration says they're the "most transparent" in history. But when I asked the Department of Homeland Security who writes their social media posts, something extremely weird happened: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
America with Assadist characteristics
If these manifestos get released, media WILL report on them. And the most responsible and knowledgeable people abstain from analyzing them for moral reasons, that leaves a gap that gets filled by the worst people. One solution is for law enforcement to not release anything (like the Austin bomber)
Instead of funding the annual budgets for dozens of independent newsrooms, have you considered spending $77 million to lose to Mitch McConnell by 20 points?
I'm sorry but you really can't take anything the shooter has said or written at face value. This is not a "Christchurch clone", it's more irony-poisoned and nihilistic. The gun also says "SKIBIDI" and "Born to shit, forced to wipe". The only seemingly true thing message is "There is no message".
children were killed. and for what? for some idiot to gain internet fame and because they're convinced that by doing so they can destroy the fabric that allows people to treat each other as fellow neighbors
I think @machete.gay summed up the motivation of the recent mass shooter best with this line in a conversation: “The only "authentic" message in the whole pile is the "there is no message" written on a pistol.”
I really encourage people to avoid using simplistic terms like "Nazi" to describe the recent Minneapolis shooter. This is not a straightforward "Christchurch clone", it's much more irony-poisoned and nihilistic. Yes the gun says "Hail Breivik", but it also says "SKIBIDI" and the "Loss" comic.
The shooter literally had the minimalist “Loss” meme on their rifle. You cannot take anything this person said or did at face value. It’s all so deep soaked in irony and toxic fandom culture that if you aren’t actually researching this stuff for a living you really shouldn’t be engaging with it.
i suspect we're going to run into the issue that no one is capable of understanding this nihilistic violence unless well read into these communities so people will use it as a means to attack
Looking through his Skibidi Farms account, he's at least aware of 764, O9A, and the like. Whether or not he actually participated in any of those groups is TBD. His threads make it seem like he's shitposting.
Understanding the personal history and justifications of these shooters can inform strategies for reducing their frequency
This part of Solomon Henderson's manifesto says it pretty plainly
Very concerning that mass shooters are starting to adopt a style of "shitposting" that combines the aesthetics of Tarrant-style Nazism with a self-aware, terminally-online-zoomer nihilism. Nothing in these manifestos (or written on AR-15s) should be taken literally.
no one is really prepared for the terrifying reality of this quasi-ironic modern terror
Heartbreaking: Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point www.404media.co/4chan-and-ki...
Israel justified its strike on the Nasser Hospital, which killed six journalists and more than a dozen others, by claiming a "Hamas" camera was set up there. The location they attacked is where Reuters and the AP livestream. From me and others (see byline/contribs) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/w...
Isaac Chotiner interviewed Biden's close friend and last ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and in the interview Jack Lew explicitly defends Israel killing children. Lew's defense of this is so offensive that Isaac Chotiner interrupts him twice and then says outright that he's wrong.
New today: soft-launch of "Open Security Mapping Project" for documenting ICE detention facilities. Includes web scraper and data on 117 facilities, all open source. Covers ICE .gov, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap +Wikidata. github.com/Open-Securit... -main info github.com/Open-Securit... -Python scraper
Has Trump’s online base moved on from the ‘Epstein Files’ scandal? In my first piece for @openmeasures.bsky.social, I ran the numbers. Of the alt-platforms I looked at, the only one keeping Epstein discussion alive was this one: Bluesky. openmeasures.io/epstein-files/
The online antisemites aren’t sending their best these days. Rockwell was murdered by a neo-Nazi cartoonist who was a once member of the American Nazi Party that he founded.
Now this is a journalist who deserves respect.
Israel literally has a military intelligence unit called the "Legitimization Cell" whose job is connecting assassinated journalists to Hamas www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-...
The lesson for authoritarian leaders around the world is that you can kill as many journalists as you want, as long as you call them terrorists. More countries will emulate this playbook: create military intelligence units and propaganda networks that spread flimsy justifications for assassination.
Targeting journalists inside hospitals with airstrikes is bad. Launching another airstrike when rescue workers arrive is also bad.
literally a cartoon image of a “criminal”
support independent leftist music journalism by signing up for my antifascist heavy metal newsletter, Salvo (pretty please) salvo.ghost.io
Say hello to Ohio Active Club/Ohio Nationalist Network lead Benjamin Massey Stanton, of Batavia, Ohio.
Yep, used Tineye, only one result
I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe “we’re not hearing stories about ICE fucking with legal residents and other sympathetic / popular folks in the RGV bc they know who to target down there” instead of the truth which is “ICE is fucking up everywhere and the national media doesn’t care.”
Exactly, people get things wrong all the time. But the combination of the AI stock photo profile picture and blocking everyone that points out the error removes any assumption of good faith.
Folks, if you are in this situation where you posted something that was wrong, presumably inadvertently, there is really only one option: point out the error, take responsibility, delete the post.
That account has blocked almost 70 people in the past 40 minutes clearsky.app/thomaspayne....
Since Bluesky now tells you if someone liked or reposted your reposts, I know that one person I follow reposted it in the time before I removed it. So I know exactly who I spread disinformation to.
I too briefly reposted it, then I read the article and didn't see that claim mentioned, so I removed my repost.
Oof, his profile picture isn't just a stock photo, it's an AI-generated stock photo
The account that made this viral post uses a AI-generated stock photo as their profile picture, and the main claim that Big Balls "was harassing and trying to pick up the 15-year-old girl" is not in the article. We are not immune from disinformation.
Is there a source for the claim that "Big Balls was harassing and trying to pick up the 15-year-old girl" before he got beat up by teenagers? I briefly reposted a post that said that but removed it because that detail wasn't in the linked Daily Beast article.
you gotta understand that the staffers in this admin think the insurrection act is an "i win" button and its not that, not that at all
HE LED THE TEN THOUSAND OUT OF PERSIA IS WHAT HE DID. HE WAS A BRILLIANT GREEK COMMANDER. IN THIS HOUSE XENOPHON IS A HERO—END OF STORY
NEW: Ghislaine Maxwell was an honored guest at a prestigious Clinton event in 2013 - years after abuse allegations against her were publicly known. Information we reviewed showed her on a list recommended for free access by either Bill or Hillary Clinton, per a source familiar.
The most interesting thing to me is the Republican dip in 2020 and early 2021: I guess they they thought WOKE was ascendant and didn't want to alienate potential supporters?
What makes a puzzle hard? I found this video delightful.
With all due respect to the New York Times, the only reason anyone outside the movement knows Kevin DeAnna writes under the pseudonym is me. I outed him in 2020. You can read on his central role in the alt-right here: www.splcenter.org/resources/ha... www.splcenter.org/resources/gu...
Yeah, I’m a right-winger. I believe in power, tradition, hegemony, and hierarchy. Men these days have the testicular fortitude of a gnat. And I am going to FUCKING CHAIN MYSELF while SOBBING to a CRACKER BARREL for being woke.
First up, two massive advertising contracts for ICE recruitment: $25M to People Who Think, LLC for "media content creation support services" $15M to Safe America Media, LLC for "media dissemination buys/ad placement support services"
One People’s Project is in dire need of help to continue operating. They need $10,000 overall, and $5,000 of that in the next week. OPP has diligently reported on & exposed fascist extremists for years. All that work is at risk of disappearing. Support: www.gofundme.com/f/support-on...
If only you had an alt account with 3 followers and 0 posts...
It's gotta hurt a little bit that you're not important enough for him to block?
Why would you will this into existence?
Reporter Eddie Kim went downtown to cover the detainment of an immigrant by ICE this morning. Then he was pepper-sprayed in the face by an ICE agent standing a foot away. Completely unprovoked. See our exclusive story and video from @eddiekimx.bsky.social here: sf.gazetteer.co/i-reported-f...
The good ol' days when Alex Jones actually didn't like the Department of Homeland Security
Everything Trump does is a shitty version of what Alex Jones has been saying "the Left" is going to do to conservatives for 20 years.
Lmao Nazi lawyer Jason Lee Van Dyke is on Bluesky and he only blocks a single account: someone he thinks is investigative journalist Mack Lamoreaux, who broke a story about him trying to join a Nazi terror group. Wrong account buddy @macklamoureux.bsky.social www.vice.com/en/article/a...
Incredibly thrilled to be a finalist for the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award alongside @tristanl.ee, an inimitable research partner.
Finally @tristanl.ee and @stevanzetti.bsky.social's work identifying white extremist networks in Texas and online has been nominated for the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award awards.journalists.org/entries/open...
Flashback to the time this guy sent me an email saying he was keeping a picture of me in his truck to look at forever, but in a very heteronormative way.
Today is the two year anniversary of 404 Media, which is hard to fathom. We wrote about how it's going, what we've done, what we're going to do, and what we've learned. We cannot do this without the support of our subscribers and for that we are endlessly thankful: www.404media.co/two-years-40...
