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A review by coepi
We Are Bellingcat: Global Crime, Online Sleuths, and the Bold Future of News by Eliot Higgins
4.0
I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was vaguely familiar with Bellingcat before reading this book, mostly through Robert Evans and his podcast Behind the Bastards, but I’d also read some of their research reports on geolocation for Interpol. I really enjoyed learning about how the organisation started; previously their open-source investigation techniques had seemed too complex and obscure for me to ever understand but I found this book really demystified them (and tempted me to get involved myself, since it’s apparently not as hard as it looks!). It was also fun to see Robert Evans mentioned by name, especially his work on right-wing online radicalisation, which I was already aware of and find fascinating.
Obviously, this is hardly an unbiased source on Bellingcat, who I know are somewhat politically contentious. But I’ve always admired their work and am not ashamed to admit I’m no fan of the Russian government, Assad regime, or other human-rights abusers, so I had a great time. In general, it made me feel really hopeful about the future too - one of Higgins’ central points is that the internet can be used as a tool for good, for combatting disinformation as well as spreading it.
Higgins is naturally the perfect person to write a book about the origins of Bellingcat, seeing as he founded it. But it’s also a fairly well-written book, aided by the fact that it comes with its own ready-made mystery/detective arcs in the form of Bellingcat’s various investigative projects (it particularly focuses on their investigations of various shady dealings from the Russian state, including the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane and the Salisbury Novichok poisonings). I found them really gripping - these were stories I’d heard about vaguely in the news at the time, but it was fascinating to see just how involved Bellingcat had been and to track each fresh revelation. I finished the book quickly and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Bellingcat’s work, or open source investigation generally.
I was vaguely familiar with Bellingcat before reading this book, mostly through Robert Evans and his podcast Behind the Bastards, but I’d also read some of their research reports on geolocation for Interpol. I really enjoyed learning about how the organisation started; previously their open-source investigation techniques had seemed too complex and obscure for me to ever understand but I found this book really demystified them (and tempted me to get involved myself, since it’s apparently not as hard as it looks!). It was also fun to see Robert Evans mentioned by name, especially his work on right-wing online radicalisation, which I was already aware of and find fascinating.
Obviously, this is hardly an unbiased source on Bellingcat, who I know are somewhat politically contentious. But I’ve always admired their work and am not ashamed to admit I’m no fan of the Russian government, Assad regime, or other human-rights abusers, so I had a great time. In general, it made me feel really hopeful about the future too - one of Higgins’ central points is that the internet can be used as a tool for good, for combatting disinformation as well as spreading it.
Higgins is naturally the perfect person to write a book about the origins of Bellingcat, seeing as he founded it. But it’s also a fairly well-written book, aided by the fact that it comes with its own ready-made mystery/detective arcs in the form of Bellingcat’s various investigative projects (it particularly focuses on their investigations of various shady dealings from the Russian state, including the Malaysian Airlines passenger plane and the Salisbury Novichok poisonings). I found them really gripping - these were stories I’d heard about vaguely in the news at the time, but it was fascinating to see just how involved Bellingcat had been and to track each fresh revelation. I finished the book quickly and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Bellingcat’s work, or open source investigation generally.