What a book! Fascinating, terrifying and optimistic in equal measure. The ability of ordinary citizens to sift fake news from the truth seems to be increasingly eroded by clever use of internet sources, but Higgins and colleagues are fighting to make the way clearer. Long may they continue
Thank you to netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book.

If you'd asked me before I read this, I'd have said that I was pretty on top of how internet sleuthing works, the role that social media played in the Arab Spring, and the value of primary sources in a world deluged with news and 'news'. We are Bellingcat, however, opened my eyes in a whole new way. 

Although it's not always a gripping read (there are times when such pains are taken to show the workings that I lost patience), it's a truly fascinating one, and truly necessary, maybe particularly for those of us who feel a little jaded - although some of the conclusions are bleak, I found this quite a hopeful read. 

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in current affairs, 'echo chambers', investigative journalism, or the huge and terrifying world of figuring out how social media shapes our lives. 

4.5/5 stars.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

The internet has evolved into a jungle of information and disinformation, traps for the gullible, rich pickings for predators and explorers alike. The book is a chronicle of the development of internet investigative journalism focusing on war crimes and political assassinations, to obtain the identification and evidence of the acts and those involved for the benefit of prosecutors. Titbits of information is trawled from public media and recorded and pursued for leads, supplemented by the search of public records and the use of google maps and satellite images to pinpoint locations. Taking years of diligent analysis, explaining how evidence was obtained to convict people of war crimes in Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and the assassination attempt at Salisbury UK makes a most interesting and fascinating story of the work of a little know organisation.

A happy marriage between open-source intelligence and citizen journalism. This is how you apply open source knowledge to better humanity, to bring high profile criminals(and by that I mean crimes against the humanity kind of thing) to justice, this is how you fight against fake news and propaganda by not so democratic regimes.

It was fascinating to read about all the tools available, basically to all of us on the internet, tools that we can use to get a better picture of events out of our reach and why not, to unearth the truth. While I've enjoyed reading this part of the book, despite the information not being entirely new to me and the over detailed narrative that at times bored me; the inner workings of the Bellingcat really didn't interest me. But nonetheless I'd say it's a worthwhile read, especially if you might want to set up something similar yourself.

All in all a good and informative read, that I wholeheartedly recommend.

If you have even have a passing interest in investigative journalism then this book is worth a read.  Detailing the history of Bellingcat through the eyes of the people who have been there from the start, the detailed information about various news items that have affected us all is impressive.  I found this to be a riveting read, albeit one that could be considered scary since it's so true - truth indeed can be stranger than fiction.  Read this if you're interested in the how and why of global investigative news - it's shocking how much this affects all!

In a world of duplicity and false news this was a refreshing book. The author Eliot Higgins has created a news gathering agency that seems to have outdone journalists - at least by thinking 'out of the box' he realised that by accessing social media of ordinary people on the ground he would get a more rounded, nuanced and even more truthful interpretation that traditional journalism. With his blog he has drawn together a group of like minded people who are helping the rest of us to understand what is going on in our world. I absolutely vital service - this is his story how it all came to be - worth reading.

This was something completely different for me.  This was a brilliantly written book about the group that look into real life crimes and the investigation into them - using open source intelligence. I had never heard of this before and really learnt a lot. 

This was very detailed and not an easy read.  If you want to learn more about this, this is a great book to read. 

This was an eye opening. read

I was given an advance copy by netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review which I have done.

I didn’t know about Bellingcat before reading this book but I do now

We Are Bellingcat details how the Open-Source investigative unit grew through its involvement in some very high profile worldwide incidents. A very interesting read

Interesting, illuminating and informative. In the era of fake news how independent people have joined together to find out the truth. Using media platforms, some readily available to the general public the search to unearth atrocities.
This should be widely publicised and taught how to verify the information portrayed in the main stream media. 
Hard reading at times as the truth is uncovered but compelling in what we as are fed as the truth from governments and those we are predisposed to trust.

When the Russian Novichok poisonings happened in Salisbury, UK, Higgins was just a normal office worker with an ‘unsatisfying job’ and an interest in the news and computing.  This book is the story of how Higgins went from leading an ordinary life to becoming an obsessive online sleuth of world events. His obsession led to the formation of Bellingcat an organisation that has been consulted on by NGOs, Government intelligent agencies, and journalists to help solve crimes, such as the downing of flight MH17.  

The book tries to show how we, as everyday internet users, with a little skill and a lot of time can also use freely available online information to create the connections that reveal the true timelines and culprits behind a number of world events and war crimes.  

As a librarian I’m passionate about digital and media literacy.  In a world where information is so freely available, how do you know what is true and what is a lie?  Higgins takes you back to the main principle of seeking out the primary data and double checking everything.  

Higgins makes much of the fact that Bellingcat always makes it clear where their information has come from and citing all sources.  Good practice for all of us, but later in the book he does say how they paid a Russian to gain access to hidden records.  Those records are the catalyst for the rest of that particular search and they would not have been able to solve that particular crime without those sources.  So though Bellingcat may have started as an open source platform of truth, but can it really still claim those credentials if they are paying someone for access to secure documents?  

Throughout the book I kept on wondering what really drove Higgins to devote so much of his time to this work.  I never felt that this was satisfactorily dealt with, and I say this as someone who knows the buzz of finding something that everyone else has struggled to locate.  There is a certain satisfaction in being able to pull all the pieces together and follow a trail to the pot of information  gold but I’m not sure I could devote hours of my life to watching video footage of war crimes as something that started as a hobby.  I also kept on asking myself why is this organisation needed, why aren’t intelligence agencies around the world doing this work, why aren’t news organisations doing it?  It’s interesting that a book with an upside down question mark on the cover left me with so many questions of my own.  

I’d really recommend this book to anyone interested in journalism, politics, world affairs and media, digital or information literacies.  Higgins raises some very important issues on how we get our information, how we fight against ‘fake news’ and how important it is for all of us that each generation has those skills.

I hadn't heard of Bellingcat before I saw this book was available on NetGalley but was intrigued by the premise. This really is a fascinating book and shows how much difference an average person can achieve with the internet behind them. The book is written in a friendly, chatty style - very approachable and very readable. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone who has any interest in the current news agenda and how the truth is available despite the myriad untrue stories found all over the internet.

Are Bellingcat – Eliot Higgins

 

I was not overly aware of Bellingcat when I saw this book, so I felt like I was going in blind, but the detail in which Higgins writes about how Bellingcat was formed, its purpose, and its methods was intricate and compelling.

 

Online sleuthing and citizen journalism is a phenomenal resource and this book shows the importance of each of these things.

 

This book is scary in the sense that it reads like a crime/thriller, but its all true!  The spread of fake news isn’t only from a certain orange soon to be former president, but can come from the most respected news outlets, but Bellingcat and the role of online sleuths is to spread correct information, not to scare, not to intimidate or to get their point across.  Its to discover the facts for themselves, for the good of others and its amazing to think that anyone can do it.  Even you and I.

 

This is a read that is not quick, its heavy going with information and took me a while to get into at first as I felt it was overloaded with information at the start, but that is what this book is about, information, accuracy and discovering the truth.

 

Thank you to Net Galley, Eliot Higgins and Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My brother always used to share super dubious news articles on Facebook. I always used to say do you actually know that that’s true? Have you even read the article? 9/10 times he hadn’t and yes it was nonsense or a news story reused from years before.
I’m sure we’ve all seen the footage this week from the US. And maybe you’ve seen the video of the woman rubbing her eyes with a towel in which you can just about see an onion? Half of the news stories id seen were saying she was doing it to make it look like she’d been attacked. However was she actually doing it because onions can take away the side effects from tear gas because she was somewhere doing something she shouldn’t have? Either way how do we know what to believe when we see things posted online. We are Bellingcat is a brilliant example of an organisation trying to prove whether the news, videos and articles we read are true and if they aren’t prove the facts, solely through open-source investigations. This book explores news stories such as the downing of the MH17 plane over Ukraine, the Salisbury novichok poisonings, the Syrian war, the New Zealand mosque terrorist attack which was broadcast live on Facebook and whether what we are reading online about them are facts, or someone’s spin on them maybe having a hidden agenda. If you want to dig deeper into the news stories you read I implore you to read this. I also ask you to think about the news article you’re reading and sharing and question if there’s a chance you’re spreading fake news.

This was an absolutely fascinating book covering a subject that is unknown to most people, particularly the older generation. The potent mixture of the evovement of the use of the internet and recent tragedies and war crimes made for a very interesting read.
The author managed to make this book eminently readable despite the subject matter being technically complex. A very well-written book.
As an aside, the progress made by Bellingcat is quite astounding in such a short time and I am comforted that there is an organisation out there trying to look after our interests.
This is a must read for anyone that keeps up to date with current affairs. After reading this book one will never take any news or more particularly social media article as gospel.

Not my usual read but it sounded really interesting and I was not disappointed. 
I hadn't heard of Bellingcat, it was quite a fascinating and insightful read. 
I had heard of some things described by the book - the mobile phone hacking scandal, the poisoning of the Russians in Salisbury. 
They go into detail about how they gather evidence and facts that either prove or disprove what is being reported in the news. The amount of work they put in in is massive, so much time searching. Open source intelligence is how they do it. Its made easier these days due Internet and social media. 
Such an insightful read.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What an amazing book this is, fully deserving of its 5 Stars. I started reading knowing an iota about Bellingcat and its reputation and my admiration grew as I turned the pages. Could not quite manage the whole book in one sitting as even I sleep sometime - although it seems that they do not.

This is a book that anyone who has any feeling for the truth should read. How these folk do their very best to stop fake-truth and identify fake-news thus stopping all sorts of injustice is truly amazing. We need to acknowledge what the group have achieved and will,hopefully, continue to achieve.

This is a hugely well-researched and detailed account by British journalist, Eliot Higgins, who founded Bellingcat in July 2014. I’d never heard of Bellingcat but thought this sounded like an interesting read and a subject I should learn more about. 

Bellingcat is a website that is run as a place where independent investigative journalists and any interested individual can work collaboratively to publish facts about world news. They have no political leanings and use open-source intelligence to unearth the truth about events which are often being misreported on purpose by governments, groups or individuals. It evolved from a blog, under the name of Brown Moses, that Elliot Higgins, wrote to publish his detailed findings on the Syrian Civil War. Bellingcat;s first big case was reporting the truth about flight MH17 which was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine. 

There is a huge amount of detail in the book about the methods and techniques used by people world over used to contribute to discover to the truth about many terrorist and war incidents, the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury and the Christchurch mosque massacre among others. The dedication, that could be described as obsession, of those who give their spare times to search through thousands and thousands of images and videos is quite astounding. They will spend days and weeks searching Google Earth to geolocate the exact location of an incident in order to corroborate the truth. Bellingcat basically represents the ultimate positive use for having many eyes – tens of thousands potentially – to ensure that the truth and facts prevail over spin and lies.


With thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Utterly fascinating book - inspiring, intriguing and eye-opening.  I've fancied myself an amateur online researcher but this is a whole other level of expertise.  Rather than the digital world being a poor facsimile of the real thing, it is now central to the way in which we understand and operate in the so-called real world.

What an eyeopener! I had heard of Bellingcat but didn't know anything about it. A fascinating read. Informative from the start and written perfectly. 

Its amazing what can be found out and how! Read it!

Thank you for providing me with a review copy of this book. Enjoyed reading, interesting points - would recommend....