Summary
A curated, AI-powered search platform that aggregates and documents open-source investigation tools for digital verification research. The toolkit provides categorized access to resources for satellite imagery analysis, social media scraping, transportation tracking, and source archiving, with community-contributed how-to guides and use-case documentation for each tool.
Key capabilities
- Natural language search: Query tools by research task (e.g., "verify satellite imagery origin", "check if a phone number appeared in a leak").
- Categorized browsing: Browse tools by domain (maps & satellites, flight tracking, business registries, social media tools, archiving).
- Tool documentation: In-depth descriptions of each tool's capabilities, limitations, cost, and requirements.
- Community contributions: Descriptions written by Bellingcat researchers, volunteers, and the open-source research community.
Use cases
- Digital verification for journalists and newsrooms
- Source authentication for fact-checking operations
- Investigative research in geopolitics, conflict monitoring, and corruption investigations
- Academic research in computational journalism and information verification
Notes
Launched as an open-source community resource, inviting contributions from researchers, newsrooms, and universities. Contact toolkit@bellingcat.com to submit tool descriptions or inquire about joining the volunteer community.