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Indicator

@indicator.media

1K followers 4 following 48 posts

Indicator.media publishes original reporting, in-depth investigations, and practical tutorials on OSINT tools & techniques. We provide engaged citizens and professionals with the knowledge they need to fight digital deception.

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by Indicator

Global Investigative Journalism Network @gijn.org · 26/09/2026

📢 @craigsilverman.bsky.social, open source expert and co-founder of @indicator.media, is conducting a hands-on workshop at #IJWeek offering easy-to-implement strategies for weighing and analyzing digital evidence. A must attend for investigative journalists! Tickets ⬇️ twp.ai/9OaM0A

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 4h

Today on @indicator.media: Google is breaking its promise to label ads for unofficial government services providers. Travelers are paying the price.

indicator.media

Google promised to label ads for unofficial visa providers. It’s doing a lousy job of it.

An Indicator audit found labels on only 8% of ads for visa providers that overcharge their users

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 25/09/2026

i'm looking to chat with folks who overpaid for a tourist visa recently because they landed on the website in a rush searching on Google and it looked like the real deal... ping me here or at alexios at indicator dot media plsss

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 17/09/2026

Pod drop alert! The one and only @noupside.bsky.social joined me and @craigsilverman.bsky.social on @indicator.media's Show & Tell to chat Grokipedia, Community Notes, and the wobbly state of platform disclosures on influence operations.

How Renée DiResta realized Grokipedia’s suddenly stopped accepting edits

YouTube video by Indicator

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 15/09/2026

This is the 116th reported case logged on @indicator.media's map of AI nudifiers being used in school communities, launched with @mattburgess1.bsky.social or @wired.com earlier this year. indicator.media/nudifiers-un...

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 10/09/2026

New on @indicator.media: Community Notes on Instagram covered just 3% of false posts debunked by the US bureau of AFP Fact Check. This analysis comes one day after Meta announced it would expand the program to 16 new countries.

indicator.media

Meta says Community Notes is bigger than fact-checking. That's not the whole story

Crowdsourced fact-checking on Instagram covered just 3% of false posts debunked by one fact-checking website

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 03/09/2026

New on @indicator.media: Simple text searches for repeat offenders could have caught ads for AI nudifiers on Meta and prevented them from being served to millions of Meta users this year.

indicator.media

Meta ran at least 11,000 ads for AI nudifiers this year – many from easily detectable repeat offenders

Indicator’s latest audit reveals the company let a network of identifiable bad actors run thousands of ads for nonconsensual deepfake nudes

Reposted by Indicator

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Bad content drives out good. indicator.media/p/ai-generat...

indicator.media

AI-generated Costco employees got over 100 million views on Facebook and Instagram

We tracked it back to a single scammy affiliate marketing operation

Reposted by Indicator

Tara Calishain @researchbuzz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

@craigsilverman.bsky.social sent me a bunch of interview questions a couple weeks ago to which I responded in a giant Google Doc. He thoughtfully trimmed my ramblings into a Q&A you can read in today's Indicator Briefing. Thank you for your interest, sir. indicator.media/p/briefing-n...

indicator.media

Briefing: New web search tools to cut through the slop

Plus: fact-checking the midterms and tracking Russian flights in Africa.

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Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 26/08/2026

We tracked it back to a single scammy affiliate marketing operation which pushed almost 8,000 reels with slightly altered assets to evade moderation. This story led Meta to remove all 107 accounts and Lovable to shut down ten domains. Subscribe to @indicator.media to support our impact.

indicator.media

AI-generated Costco employees got over 100 million views on Facebook and Instagram

We tracked it back to a single scammy affiliate marketing operation

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 12/08/2026

Detector tools built and made available by AI providers are mandatory -- but often missing, according to a new report we published today on @indicator.media. We found detectors for 6/13 companies and fooled all but one.

indicator.media

AI generators are now required to offer detection tools. We tested them (and they need work)

We found detectors for six out of thirteen companies, and fooled all but one

Reposted by Indicator

Bruna Martins dos Santos @brums.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

@witnessorg.bsky.social and @indicator.media tested some of the detection tools available in order for companies to comply with the California AI Transparency Act and the AI Act and the outcomes were a bit concerning... indicator.media/p/ai-generat...

indicator.media

AI generators are now required to offer detection tools. We tested them (and they need work)

We found detectors for six out of thirteen companies, and fooled all but one

Reposted by Indicator

Sam Gregory @samgregory.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Good @indicator.media report, in tandem with @witnessorg.bsky.social on gaps in detection tools mandated by rules that came into force on Aug 2: EU AI Act, and California AI Transparency Act. They found detectors for 6 out of 13 companies, and fooled all but one. indicator.media/p/ai-generat...

indicator.media

AI generators are now required to offer detection tools. We tested them (and they need work)

We found detectors for six out of thirteen companies, and fooled all but one

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 19/08/2026

In this month's @indicator.media Show & Tell, we heard from Caitlin Ostroff and Neil Mehta, who investigated Polymarket's outrageously deceptive marketing campaign. (ICYMI: Polymarket made a fake version of its own website, then paid creators to film themselves winning fake bets.)

How WSJ reporters caught Polymarket faking its own site

YouTube video by Indicator

Indicator @indicator.media · 06/08/2026

We first published our overview of how different platforms have said they will label AI content in October of last year. We've had to update this guide several times since and it now covers the situation on Bluesky, LinkedIn, Meta, Pinterest, Snap, Spotify, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

indicator.media

The Indicator Guide to AI labels

We’ve collected in one place how and when major platforms label AI content

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 05/08/2026

I wrote a guide to red teaming AI tools for safety for @indicator.media. It's a combination of simple frameworks and snippets of worked-through examples built from my experience at Google, running a pro bono clinic at Cornell Tech, and doing this kind of work as a journalist.

indicator.media

How to red team an AI tool for safety

Indicator’s no-code and product-agnostic guide to probing for harmful stuff

Reposted by Indicator

Riana @riana.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I'm quoted in today's @indicator.media newsletter, talking about the xAI lawsuit against Minnesota's deepfake nudes law: indicator.media/p/briefing-m...

indicator.media

Briefing: Musk sues Minnesota over synthetic nudes law

Plus: Tools for tracking foreign interference and LinkedIn launches "AI slop" button

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 31/07/2026

Today's free Indicator Briefing is *full* of things you need to know, tools you can use, and research you should read on the digital deception beat. Check it out:

indicator.media

Briefing: Musk sues Minnesota over synthetic nudes law

Plus: Tools for tracking foreign interference and LinkedIn launches "AI slop" button

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 27/07/2026

I'm preparing a guide on red teaming AI tools for safety. If you have background in this space, what are some essential resources you turn to frequently or have recommended to newcomers in this space? Here are a few I share:

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 22/07/2026

New on @indicator.media: Passport bro content painting Latvia as a "leftover ladies’ paradise" where men "are more valuable than gold" has escaped containment and polluted AI results

indicator.media

How tabloid claims about Latvia’s “man drought” fueled a misleading social media frenzy and polluted Google results

Passport bro content objectifying Latvian women has taken over video and search platforms

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 24/06/2026

Two Spanish operators running 20+ lookalike domains for the official sites have flooded Google with ads for {attraction name} + tickets. They then overcharge for a base ticket by a factor of 2x to 7x.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 07/07/2026

A great, detailed, guide on web scraping tools for investigations by David Weisz, who ran three different tests on seven different scrapers. His take: "I'm blown away by the progress scrapers have made over the past decade, particularly the Chrome extensions and AI tools."

indicator.media

No code, no budget: 7 web scrapers put to the test

Scraping no longer demands coding skills or a big budget. Here's how seven options held up across three real-world tests.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 24/06/2026

NEW on @indicator.media: If you're visiting the Alhambra, the Colosseum, the Louvre or one of 12 other top cultural attractions in Europe, be careful when buying tickets.

indicator.media

Ticket traps: Lookalike sites use Google Ads to fleece tourists at the Alhambra, Colosseum, and Louvre

Google served more than 1,500 ads for 20 sites that charge two to seven times the official ticket price

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 18/06/2026

I'm looking for people who mistakenly booked overpriced tickets on a website that imitated the official one for any of these attractions: Alhambra, Colosseum, Louvre, Museo del Prado, Palace of Versailles, Sagrada Familia, Uffizi Galleries, Vatican Museums This is for @indicator.media

Indicator @indicator.media · 18/06/2026

Last week, Indicator won the inaugural CJF Hinton Award for Excellence in AI Safety Reporting for our work exposing the infrastructure behind nonconsensual deepfake nude generators.

Reposted by Indicator

Dr Emma L Briant 🇬🇧 in 🇺🇸 w/ 🐕 @emma-briant.co.uk · 17/06/2026

How a Haaretz reporter infiltrates companies offering disinformation as a service @indicator.media youtu.be/f6ODZiA1UEc?...

How a Haaretz reporter infiltrates companies offering disinformation as a service

YouTube video by Indicator

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 17/06/2026

Sometimes you have to (metaphorically) kill off an emu to fact-check a shady marketing firm.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 17/06/2026

Had a lot of fun chatting to Omer Benjakob, the disinformation and cyber reporter for Haaretz, for the latest episode of @indicator.media's "Show & Tell"

How a Haaretz reporter infiltrates companies offering disinformation as a service

YouTube video by Indicator

Reposted by Indicator

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

WIRED and @indicator.media's tracker of deepfake sexual abuse in schools is now at more than 100 cases around the world. When we published this piece in April, the total count was under 90: www.wired.com/story/deepfa... Map and data here: indicator.media/nudifiers-un... (cc @mantzarlis.com)

Screenshot of WIRED/Indicator Media's tracker of AI nudifiers targeting school communities. The screenshot shows a global map with instances plotted onto it

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 11/06/2026

New on @indicator.media: I ran an adversarial audit of Pangram, one of the buzziest AI text detectors out there. It claims a 99.98% accuracy rate. I was ultimately able to get Pangram to misidentify AI text as human 85.7% of the time in an adversarial set of 588 text samples.

indicator.media

What I learned running an adversarial test on an AI text detector

If you get your bot to rhyme / Pangram will misclassify it many a time

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 11/06/2026

Excuse me but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Indicator @indicator.media · 10/06/2026

We are now also on Instagram -- because who doesn't want to be reminded about scams and disinformation while looking at pics of food and faraway beaches? Follow us at: instagram.com/indicatordotmedia

Reposted by Indicator

Alan Jagolinzer @jagolinzer.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Worth a read. From @craigsilverman.bsky.social indicator.media/p/i-got-insi...

indicator.media

I got inside a North Korean hiring scam. What I found reveals a troubling shift in tactics

DPRK hackers hired unwitting freelancers in the Philippines, Nigeria, and Colombia to put a human face on a malware operation — and make fake companies feel real.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 10/06/2026

You think you know your co-founder and then you find out he's interviewing to get a SWE gig for a North Korean hiring scam, smdh. Read @craigsilverman.bsky.social's awesome new investigation:

indicator.media

I got inside a North Korean hiring scam. What I found reveals a troubling shift in tactics

DPRK hackers hired unwitting freelancers in the Philippines, Nigeria, and Colombia to put a human face on a malware operation — and make fake companies feel real.

Reposted by Indicator

James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Also in depressing security news. indicator.media/p/i-got-insi...

indicator.media

I got inside a North Korean hiring scam. What I found reveals a troubling shift in tactics

DPRK hackers hired unwitting freelancers in the Philippines, Nigeria, and Colombia to put a human face on a malware operation — and make fake companies feel real.

Reposted by Indicator

Facta @facta.news · 08/06/2026

Come i siti che indagano sui tradimenti sentimentali usano informazioni false e dubbie per farsi pagare | L'indagine di @indicator.media

Come i siti che indagano sui tradimenti sentimentali usano informazioni false e dubbie per farsi pagare | Facta

Indicator ha scoperto un ecosistema pieno di affermazioni infondate, prodotti falsi e traditori generati con l’intelligenza artificiale

Reposted by Indicator

Kolina Koltai @koltai.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

This is what always surprises people. The ability to make deepfake nudes isn't hidden in some dusty, hard to access part of the internet. It's available in the most accessible ways like the Google Play store and the Apple App store. Anyone with a cell phone can make a deepfake nude in minutes.

Indicator @indicator.media · 04/06/2026

We love to see it! Indicator is a Digital Media Awards 2026 global winner in the "Best in Countering Disinformation" category. Thanks to the World Association of News Publishers for the recognition. wan-ifra.org/events/digit...

Reposted by Indicator

Craig Silverman @craigsilverman.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Absolutely awesome to see that my guide to using Skills in Chrome helped an investigator with his work! Here's the post: indicator.media/p/the-indica...

Reposted by Indicator

tonsanx2.bsky.social @tonsanx2.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

indicator.media/p/8-ai-bots-...

indicator.media

8 AI bots now write 50% of X’s Community Notes

The crowdsourced moderation project faces a choice between scale and legitimacy

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 04/06/2026

After Indicator reached out, Apple and Google deleted 43 of the unsafe apps flagged by the audit.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 04/06/2026

New on @indicator.media: We have long known that some "face swapping" apps market themselves as deepfake nude generators. At least one of these was used in a recent case in a US high school. But new research shows the majority of these tools do not have any guardrails against nonconsensual abuse.

indicator.media

Most faceswap apps in the Apple and Google stores could be used to make deepfake nudes

Apple and Google removed 43 apps flagged by Indicator

Reposted by Indicator

Celeste Labedz @celestelabedz.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I'm a former Community Notes super-user interviewed for this piece. Whether the notes are written by people or language-mimicking algorithms, the central flaw of Twitter's Community Notes is the same as it's always been: it's a "fact-checking" system that doesn't involve the checking of facts.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 26/05/2026

Today on @indicator.media: A handful of anonymous bots have taken over fact-checking on X. This isn’t hyperbole. In the first three weeks of May, just eight AI contributors wrote 50.3% of all visible Community Notes on the platform.

indicator.media

8 AI bots now write 50% of X’s Community Notes

The crowdsourced moderation project faces a choice between scale and legitimacy

Reposted by Indicator

joe bodnar @joeabodnar.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Shout out to @indicator.media for its guide on Skills in Chrome. I customized a prompt and made this great Obsidian network map in like 5 minutes.

Reposted by Indicator

Canadian Journalism Foundation @cjf-fjc.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

CJF Hinton Award Finalist Spotlight: @indicator.media co-founder @mantzarlis.com, with co-founder @craigsilverman.bsky.social, and co-authors Santiago Lakatos and Benjamin Shultz, was shortlisted for three articles from Indicator’s body of reporting on AI nudifiers.

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 19/05/2026

Starting today, tech platforms are required by the US Take It Down Act to remove synthetic non consensual intimate imagery. Here's what their removal workflows look like in practice:

indicator.media

Tech platforms are now required by US law to remove deepfake nudes. Here’s how you can request a takedown.

Indicator reviewed the removal flows for 16 different platforms

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 14/05/2026

In May's Show & Tell, @craigsilverman.bsky.social and I are joined by Amnesty International's Barbara Marcolini. Barbara spoke about her role as a journalist in a human rights org. and walked us through how she documented the Israeli military's destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.

How an OSINT Investigator Documented the Israeli Army’s Destruction of Southern Lebanon

YouTube video by Indicator

Reposted by Indicator

Alexios Mantzarlis @mantzarlis.com · 07/05/2026

New on @indicator.media: At 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning, I discovered that my partner Mia has a hidden Tinder Platinum account. Except Mia is not actually my partner. She isn’t even a real person. The image I uploaded was created with Google AI. So, it turns out, was the Tinder profile.

indicator.media

How "Cheater Buster" websites use fake info and dubious claims to trick people into paying

Indicator found an ecosystem rife with spurious claims, fake products, and AI-generated matches

Reposted by Indicator

Jan Eggers @janeggers.tech · 07/05/2026

Hurra, KI lässt neue Geschäftsmodelle entstehen! Zum Beispiel: Bezahlen, damit du erfährst, wie dich deine KI-Fake-Freundin betrügt. indicator.media/p/how-cheate...

indicator.media

How "Cheater Buster" websites use fake info and dubious claims to trick people into paying

Indicator found an ecosystem rife with spurious claims, fake products, and AI-generated matches