Craig Silverman
Investigative journalist and OSINT trainer. I write the free Digital Investigations newsletter and edited the Verification Handbook series. Previously: ProPublica, BuzzFeed News.
digitalinvestigations.substack.com
https://craigsilverman.ca
- Personal news: Friday was my last day @ ProPublica. It was a thrill to work in one of the world's best newsrooms. More news soon about what's next. Feel free to reach out abt working together or workshops for your org! Sub to my newsletter to follow my next steps: digitalinvestigations.substack.com
- BREAKING: The head of the $42 billion federal BEAD program that aims to bring broadband internet to rural and unserved areas has left the Commerce Dept. He sent a departing email warning of "deeply negative outcomes" for people if the Trump admin shifts $$ from fiber internet to Musk's Starlink:
- Here's the full email. Feinman's term ended and he was not reappointed. The Commerce Dept. is still weighing how it will change BEAD, but its stated preference for a low-cost, "tech neutral" use of funds could mean billions more for satellite operators like Starlink.
- Please reach out if you have information or insights to share about the BEAD program at the federal, state or local level. I'm happy to speak privately:
- New from me: Meta decided to stop working with U.S. fact-checkers at the same time as it’s revamping a program to pay bonuses to creators with high engagement numbers, potentially pouring accelerant on the kind of false posts the company once policed: www.propublica.org/article/face...
- Just a reminder that I'm always happy to speak privately to people with knowledge about content, product, policy, tech etc. at Meta and other platforms:
- @mommamia.bsky.social Hi! I'm a reporter with ProPublica. I was wondering if you took the photo in this post? Could you message me here or contact me at craig.silverman@propublica.org? Thank you! bsky.app/profile/momm...
- Time is running out to apply for the Global Investigative Journalism Network's free Cyber Investigations Training Course! Journalists (staff/freelance) learn to investigate the digital environment and to expose attacks and manipulation. Apply by Feb. 1: gijn.org/stories/digi...
- I encourage anyone interested in Meta’s decision to stop working with US fact checkers to read this analysis of the program and decision from @mantzarlis.com: open.substack.com/pub/fakedup/...
- Massive change at Meta, as Zuckerberg announces they’re ditching fact checkers in the US and replacing them with community notes. Meta is probably the single largest funder of fact checking in the world right now. But that appears to be coming to an end. www.facebook.com/share/v/18Rc...?
- It’s remarkable that Zuck said “the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased, and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S." He not only ended the partnership, he threw US fact checkers under the bus.
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- UnitedHealth has been limiting access to important autism treatment, leaving children and their parents stranded: www.propublica.org/article/unit...
- Meta released a review of activity on its platforms during an unprecedented year of elections. It covers a lot of ground but fails to address how Meta’s political ad system has been abused to scam and deceive people on a global scale during such a critical year for democracy. Here’s a rundown 🧵:
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View full threadMeta also recently released an overview of its implementation of the DSA: about.fb.com/news/2024/11...
- The links in this thread have responses from Meta. Re: our reporting, Meta removed some ads after first approving them, but failed to catch others with similar/identical content — or to prevent new pages & ads. It had removed about half of the pages flagged by us prior to being contacted.
- In the EU, AI Forensics revealed multiple Meta ad enforcement issues, including a failure to detect undeclared political ads, and a failure to stop a massive pro-Russian propaganda ads operation that reached over 38 million users in France and Germany: aiforensics.org/work/meta-po...
- In response, the EU opened “formal proceedings to assess whether Meta, the provider of Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA).” Meta said that it has a “well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
- It also failed to stop a network of Facebook pages run from Nigeria that shared posts and bought ads that targeted UK voters with divisive political messaging and anti-Ukraine narratives: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024...
- In Moldova, Meta allowed a set of pages linked to a sanctioned, fugitive pro-Russia oligarch to run tens of thousands of dollars worth of political ads. Meta removed the pages after Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about them at a press conference in Moldova: www.zdg.md/stiri/sor-ta...
- In India, NewsMeter found that Meta allowed networks of political advertisers to conceal who paid for ads that contained propaganda and false claims. The ads listed “untraceable addresses and inactive mobile numbers in their Meta Ad Library disclaimers.” newsmeter.in/fact-check/u...
- In the UK, Meta failed to block thousands of political ads peddling false information: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2024...
- Also in the US, ISD uncovered a network of “FB pages, groups, and websites that used coordinated inauthentic behavior and evaded ads transparency policies to encourage pro-Trump, anti-establishment candidates to run for office.” www.isdglobal.org/digital_disp...
- Forbes exposed that Meta earned more than $1 million from political ads that “falsely claimed that Democrats plan to postpone the election and insinuated that Vice President Kamala Harris might drop out of the race.” www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...
- As noted in its post, Meta requires political & social issue advertisers to register and to prove their location and ID. Meta places a disclaimer on ads to show who paid for it. And it recently required advertisers to disclose if they used AI to alter an image/video. about.fb.com/news/2024/12...
- We found over 100,000 US political/issues ads with misleading advertiser info that concealed who actually paid for the ad. We found pages that falsely claimed to be affiliated with the government. We saw at least thousands of ads with undisclosed use of AI images and video.
- We uncovered more than 100k deceptive US election/social issues ads across +200 FB pages. The ads used deepfakes of Trump, Biden & others to make false claims about gov subsidies and to hawk Trump merch. Meta earned more than **$25 million** from the ads. Story: www.propublica.org/article/face...
- "So deepfake Elon Musk clickbait was used to sell deepfake Schwarzenegger endorsements of shady supplements. That’s 2024 in a nutshell for you." fakedup.substack.com...
- Last call for signups! This webinar is at 1 ET TODAY. Still time to register:
- 🚨 TOMORROW! 🚨 Join @propublica.org reporter, @craigsilverman.bsky.social, on a 60-minute workshop that offers an in-depth look at the year’s most useful free and paid tools to analyze documents, verify images and videos, background individuals, and much more. 👉 bit.ly/3V4dTj5
- Still time to sign up for this! I’ll give a rundown of lots of new and updated tools to help with your reporting:
- 🚨 TOMORROW! 🚨 Join @propublica.org reporter, @craigsilverman.bsky.social, on a 60-minute workshop that offers an in-depth look at the year’s most useful free and paid tools to analyze documents, verify images and videos, background individuals, and much more. 👉 bit.ly/3V4dTj5
- The new episode of Big [If True] is up on YouTube! Here's a useful segment about how unscrupulous marketers and others steal content from influencers to sell products or push propaganda: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n71q...
- A great starter pack if you want to learn about news literacy:
- ✅We've put together a starter pack with News Literacy Project experts. go.bsky.app/KBV4mYE Follow along for all things media literacy education, fact-checking, misinfo and free resources.
- This is happening next week! Sign up below:
- 🚨 Top Tools for Journalists in 2024 🚨 bit.ly/3V4dTj5 Join @craigsilverman.bsky.social, award-winning journalist and digital investigations expert, for a 60-minute workshop on Dec. 3 at 12 pm CT/1 pm ET! ✅ Register today: bit.ly/3V4dTj5
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- Here's my latest (free!) Digital Investigations newsletter. It's got: 📍 Useful Bluesky tools & tips 📍 New tools for YouTube, AI prompts, username search & more! 📍 Webinars and articles to help with research and reporting Read/subscribe: digitalinvestigation...
- This is a great new weekly show from TVO that aims to help people navigate our chaotic information environment. You can watch full episodes for free on YouTube. See below.
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- I'm sending out the latest edition of my free Digital Investigations newsletter early tomorrow morning. Sign up to receive a rundown of new and updated tools that can help your reporting, research, and investigations: digitalinvestigation...
- Big [If True] is a new weekly show from TVO. It helps viewers navigate the false narratives & fake news bombarding our feeds. The first episode is tonight at 8 pm ET! You can also watch clips/full episodes on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@BigIfTrueTVO More info here: www.tvo.org/big-if-true
- The show's segments are live on its YouTube page now: www.youtube.com/@BigIfTrueTVO
- I'm sure this will work out well! restofworld.org/2024/buenos-...
- A good starter pack:
- I dreamt I made a starter pack of tech journalists, so after I woke up I took a first stab at it. go.bsky.app/9SRbdqyat://did:plc:xpu5e52rhk6a3efljymgnmz4/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbpq5dooda2k
- I’m giving a webinar that will provide a lightning round rundown of new and updated free and paid tools to analyze documents, verify images and videos, background individuals, and more. 🗓️ Dec. 3 at 12 pm CT/1 pm ET Sign up here: journalismcourses.org/product/top-...
- A unique and amusing way to run a website contact page:
- Our contact page doubles as an IQ test at @leadstories.com We're amazed how well it has worked to deal with harrasment over the years. Fact checkers are used to criticism: people really don't like being told the thing they believe is not real. Sometimes they'll even email us... Story time!
- “… my 13-year-old mind was too simple to make sense of him. Here was some strange chimera who seemed ancient yet terribly modern. Almost feral, but also quite polite. Long hair, long shorts, no sleeves. Big muscles, high shots, slow serve.” defector.com/rafael-nadal...
- This is a good starter pack of media folks:
- I made a starter pack for journalism thinkers on Bluesky. Let me know who I've missed! go.bsky.app/aWdSPbat://did:plc:fzb6ssbptvrx7oaeq5mnebhh/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lb2novbdde2t
- Had no idea something like this is possible with Bluesky. Really interesting to think about how it could be applied to fact checking, adding context etc.
- Absolutely INCREDIBLE demonstration of what this platform can do: subscribe to this labeler and see which fancy private school different UK public figures on here went to, and how much those schools cost. bsky.app/profile/dadd...
- Maltego is my passion lol
- So...the @nytimes.com got ahold of some Gaetz documents, including this chart of payments: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/u...
- Leon spoke to my class and it was fantastic!
- Professors and researchers: are you booking speakers for the Spring semester? I have talks and workshops on data-driven investigations using crowdsourcing with WhatsApp, auditing black box AI systems and advanced web scraping. inspectelement.org/apis.html gist.github.com/yinleon/4e39...
- A great collection of case studies for teachers:
- We teamed up with @seanadavis.bsky.social of @logicallyfacts.bsky.social on this recap of 6️⃣ viral falsehoods about the presidential election that focuses on these specific types of #misinformation: - fabricated content - manipulated content - tricks of context Check it out bit.ly/Election24Fa...
