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Melissa Zhu

@melzxy.bsky.social
51 followers 61 following 1 posts

Editor at Bellingcat.

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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 10/08/2026
Bellingcat's @koltai.bsky.social spoke alongside our partners @thepress.co.nz to @theworld.org about our investigation into LeakedBB, a site that had over 2.3 million registered users, including some who distributed leaked nude photos and videos. theworld.org/segments/202...
theworld.org
Investigative report traces global reach of 'revenge porn' website - The World from PRX
From a court case in the US to a family home in New Zealand, a cross-border investigation by Bellingcat and The Press, a daily newspaper in New Zealand, tracks down the alleged owner of a “revenge por...
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 21/07/2026
Read the full investigation, produced in partnership with @thepress.co.nz, here: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/07...
bellingcat.com
The Crypto Entrepreneur Linked to a Forum Trading in ‘Leaked’ Nudes
Two days after we reached out to crypto start-up founder Jitendra Maharaj about his apparent connections to LeakedBB, the site went offline.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 21/07/2026
LeakedBB, an adult forum averaging two million monthly visits, rewarded members for posting intimate imagery they claimed was leaked, hacked or obtained through blackmail. Payment records, company filings and domain data appear to link the site to one man. youtube.com/shorts/rejPc...
youtube.com
The Crypto Entrepreneur Linked to a Forum Trading ‘Leaked’ Intimate Images
YouTube video by Bellingcat
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Melissa Zhu @melzxy.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Another great investigation by @koltai.bsky.social. This forum, where users have posted and discussed "leaked" images of women since 2019, went offline two days after we reached out to a man we believe to be connected to it.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 14/07/2026
Our Colombian partner publication, Cerosetenta, has released the following statement after a court ruling on our story about alleged links between a political candidate and an international Neo-nazi group in Bogota cerosetenta.uniandes.edu.co/cumplimiento...
cerosetenta.uniandes.edu.co
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 14/05/2026
Satellite imagery shows that at least 46 towns and villages in southern Lebanon have been heavily damaged or, in some cases, entirely flattened by the Israeli Defence Forces. Bellingcat’s interactive map reveals the scale of the destruction: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05...
bellingcat.com
Satellite Imagery Shows Ongoing Demolitions Across Southern Lebanon - bellingcat
Dozens of towns and villages within the IDF's “Yellow Line” in southern Lebanon have been heavily damaged or destroyed in recent months.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 11/05/2026
Bellingcat and Cerosetenta have uncovered online links between the first South American branch of the far-right Active Club movement in Colombia and a mainstream political figure who ran in recent elections for the country's largest right-wing political party. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/05...
bellingcat.com
A Colombian Politician’s Links to Neo-Nazi Group Active Club
Jorge Rodriguez, who stood in Colombia’s March 2026 parliamentary elections, follows Active Club Bogota’s Instagram account and has “liked” an image featuring a neo-Nazi flag.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 20/04/2026
Researching China isn’t easy. With many foreign sites blocked, journalists depend on domestic platforms. Even under tight controls, Chinese apps are the main window into the country. Chu Yang’s latest guide explains how to research Xiaohongshu (Rednote). www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...
bellingcat.com
Mining China’s ‘Little Red Book’ for Open Source Gold - bellingcat
Xiaohongshu, a female-focused lifestyle app, is a rare window into China for researchers outside the country.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 31/03/2026
Bellingcat found 31 posts with AI-generated imagery shared on social media by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam and West Bengal in December that appeared to meet the United Nations’ definition of hate speech. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...
bellingcat.com
How India’s Ruling Party is Using AI to Boost Hate Speech
Bellingcat found 31 posts by the BJP that appeared to feature AI-generated images, along with either anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim hate speech, in Assam and West Bengal within a month.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 18/03/2026
Bellingcat and our partners at @evidentmedia.org and @calmatters.org have tracked US Border Patrol agents, analysing over 85 hours of footage taken across the country to try and unpack the circumstances around multiple use-of-force incidents. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...
bellingcat.com
Agents of Chaos: Unpacking the Actions of Border Patrol Agents Across US
Bellingcat and our partners analysed over 85 hours of footage, analysing the actions of Border Patrol agents across the United States.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 05/03/2026
Trying to make sense of an aircraft’s movements during a conflict? Context is everything. That’s why we built Turnstone, an open source tool that searches historical flight data to allow researchers to explore flight patterns over time and in specific locations. www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...
bellingcat.com
Bellingcat’s New Tool to Explore Historical and Spatial Flight Data
Turnstone can visualise historical trends in flight data or filter them by geography, aircraft type and other parameters.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Kolina Koltai @koltai.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
This is why journalism matters. People were using Grok to unredact victims' photos from the latest Epstein release. We reached out to X (they didn't respond), but then over the weekend, Grok stopped responding to those requests.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 10/02/2026
Since we reached out to X about Grok attempting to unredact photos of Epstein victims upon X users’ requests, we’ve noticed Grok now refusing to unredact new requests. Bellingcat researcher @koltai.bsky.social reports: www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/02...
bellingcat.com
Epstein Files: X Users Are Asking Grok to 'Unblur' Photos of Children - bellingcat
Bellingcat reviewed dozens of requests for Grok to generate the faces of children and women that had been redacted from the latest documents.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 30/01/2026
Our Digital Hate and Harms Team has just released a new microsite to document and share information about symbols used by hate groups from around the world. monitoring-glossary.bellingcat.com
monitoring-glossary.bellingcat.com
Bellingcat Monitoring Glossary
Bellingcat Monitoring Glossary
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 16/01/2026
Just hours after Renee Good was shot, one member of Customs and Border Patrol’s elite tactical team on an adjacent street fired a less-lethal weapon five times in less than five minutes, with four shots aimed at the faces of protestors. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...
bellingcat.com
Analysing One Federal Agent’s Use of Less-Lethal Launcher in Minneapolis
After the fatal shooting of Renee Good, Border Patrol agent "EZ-17" was filmed shooting less-lethal munitions at protesters five times in five minutes.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 07/01/2026
Using imagery online of the shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, we’ve created an animated sequence which highlights the approximate positioning of officers and vehicles at the scene. The red dot represents the agent who fired the shots. Yellow dots are other agents who arrived at the scene.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Kolina Koltai @koltai.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
New from me! After we reached out to the owner of these deepfake porn sites, they were removed offline and he deleted his socials. Each time a site goes down, it's a win for me. Hopefully this guy never tries to get them up and running again. Check out our investigation!
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 31/10/2025
Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...
bellingcat.com
Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Illinois Protesters
A judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics by federal agents, including those involved in Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago region.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Kolina Koltai @koltai.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Believe it or not, I started looking into Crushmate/CrushAI a year ago! And just got too busy with other projects. But with Meta announcing they are suing Joy Timeline, one of the entities linked to CrushAI's nudify ads, we were ready to hit publish on our investigation. Check it out!
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 18/06/2025
On its website Crushmate claimed to specialise in “crafting an AI girl of your dreams”, but on social ads it promoted a tool for making nonconsensual nude images of real women. @koltai.bsky.social & @melzxy.bsky.social pull back the layers of the “CrushAI” network. www.bellingcat.com/news/america...
bellingcat.com
New Companies Linked to 'Nudify' Apps That Ran Ads on Facebook, Instagram
Meta is suing Joy Timeline HK Limited, the entity it says is behind the CrushAI apps. But Bellingcat has linked these apps to two other companies.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 25/03/2025
It’s already hard to judge whether products you buy online will be the right size or not, but what if the product doesn’t even exist? @koltai.bsky.social helps you to distinguish between real and AI-generated products online. www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...
bellingcat.com
How to Spot AI-Generated Scam Products
It's harder than before to tell what’s real and what’s fake, but if you look closely there are often tell-tale signs.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 21/02/2025
@koltai.bsky.social delves deeper into Clothoff. The app notorious for generating non-consensual deepfake pornography now claims it is funding an organisation to support those affected by AI. The ownership of this organisation, or how it helps victims, is unclear. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/02...
bellingcat.com
Deepfake Porn App Claims to be Donating to Help AI Victims
Clothoff says it is working with “ASU Label” to support those affected by AI. The ownership of this organisation, or how it helps victims, is unclear.
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Galen Reich @galen.reich.me.uk · 13/02/2025
Finding relevant high resolution SAR imagery from Umbra's Open Data Program can be tricky 🛰️ With this new @bellingcat.com project you can browse all the currently available data in Google Earth📍🌏 github.com/bellingcat/u...
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Reposted by Melissa Zhu
Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 24/01/2025
Watch along as we share our investigation into the deadly opioids Nitazenes, revealing what the online advertisements look like and sharing how the drugs, that can cause an overdose even with trace quantities, are being smuggled into Europe... www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qU...
youtube.com
The Rise of Nitazenes: The Deadly Opioids Targeting Europe
YouTube video by Bellingcat
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