Mysterious Digital Investigation Agency” in the spotlight during the Ukraine conflict

As the situation in Ukraine grows increasingly tense, one intelligence group is attracting a great deal of attention. Bellingcat, a British digital investigative news organization, drew worldwide criticism when it was reported on February 28 that Russian troops had used cluster bombs in Ukraine, a practice banned under the Geneva Conventions. In fact, it was Bellingcat that scooped this up.

This magazine interviewed Elliot Higgins, founder and president of Bellingcat. Mr. Higgins has published a book titled “Bellingcat — Digital Hunter, Exposing the Lies of the State,” which is attracting increasing attention worldwide. He revealed all about Bellingcat, its challenges, and more.

What kind of group is Bellingcat?

Independent of any government, agency, or organization, we are a group of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists who uncover the truth through social media and other open-source information.

We now have nearly 30 people on staff, and we have non-staff contributors all over the world. They help us on a volunteer basis. The current staff members are half male and half female, with the largest number of young people in their late 20s and early 30s. The oldest is in his 40s. I was originally a blogger, but others have been in the British Army, engineers, master’s degree students, and people who worked in the field of business intelligence.

How was the company founded?

I was originally a blogger (using the name Brown Moses) and used YouTube and social media to research incidents of interest as a hobby. My wife is Turkish and I was watching and analyzing nearly 500 YouTube videos daily about Syrian weapons. If a new weapon came up, I would blog about it. That was quoted in the British “Guardian” and other publications, and my research began to attract attention. My hobby grew into my day job.

In July ’14 I founded Bellingcat in the Netherlands, and it was reported around the world that I had uncovered the suspects and backstory behind the downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane in ’14, which led to an indictment by the official international investigative body.

ーWhat methods do you use in your investigations?

We use a method called “Open Source Investigation,” which involves online access to publicly available information, including images, videos, social networking information, and map information spread across a sea of digital space, and using a variety of analytical methods to uncover the truth about incidents that state authorities are trying to cover up.

Most of the information comes from social networking sites and YouTube images and information, but sometimes we also interview the people involved. We receive information from contributors around the world, some of which is not true. We have to be especially careful about cases that we have not worked on at all and they contact us. The video may also be false, so we check it against all the information available in open sources.

We get our funding from various sources, but we never receive it directly from the government. We try to disseminate the open source research methodology we have developed through workshops in schools, and 35% of our funding comes from these workshops.

Do you see any limitations to Bellingcat’s research and reporting on the Ukrainian conflict?

It is not so much the limitations as the accuracy of the information. We cannot publish information that is not good enough. Even if it is open source, the information may have been released by Russia. Even information from Ukraine may not be 100% accurate. That is the hardest part.

Q: What are some of the things you are taking care of now?

I am convinced that Russia is targeting me, so no matter what hotel in the world I stay in, I never eat at the hotel. This is because there is a possibility of being poisoned. I make sure that I am not killed and that they do not know where I am.