Open-source intelligence

Open-source Intelligence (OSINT) is the practice of collecting, analyzing, and utilizing information that is publicly available (either online or offline) to produce actionable insights or knowledge. Unlike covert intelligence gathering, OSINT relies exclusively on sources that are accessible to the general public—anyone with internet access or the ability to obtain public documents can engage in OSINT, including imperialist state agencies (such as the CIA or FBI).

Due to the relationship between OSINT groups and the intelligence community (the umbrella term regrouping western State intelligence agencies), it is possible to consider that OSINT is simply a keyword to shift blame away from intelligence agencies when they want to perform deadly operations, and it is likely that most of the "open-source" documents, images and other data 'researchers' publish is not actually open-source, but was handed to them by agencies. However, some resources exist that can be used by communists as well.

Examples

Although it has existed since the 1990s, the Pizza Index has become open-source thanks to public databases such as Google Maps. Prior to Maps, only restaurant employees could know how many pizzas their store sold in one night and if it was higher than average - and indeed, the term originally came from Frank Meeks, who owned 70 Domino's Pizza franchises in New York at the time.

It is possible to use social media platforms such as Linkedin to track key figures' jobs (and thus level of importance and responsibilities), movement (through their posts or photos posted of them), or habitual location (through googling the employer's office). For this reason, communists should make their social media profiles private and be careful about what they share. Western social media is compromised as they will comply with state agencies if asked to submit information about your profile. Otherwise, it is possible to have two profiles on platforms: one that is public-facing and public, and one that is private and for friends only.

By finding a person's employer, it is also very easy to find their professional email address (usually a combination of firstname.lastname at business.com). This makes it easy for someone to then send them a phishing or other malicious email.

Mossad and Shin Bet uses this type of information a lot. They purposely target gay people in the West Bank and Gaza (a form of pinkwashing), or people with gambling debts, to recruit them as informants or double agents. In Iran and Turkey, Mossad runs ads and job listings openly on online platforms to recruit informants.

Link between imperialist agencies "non-state" outlets

State agencies (particularly in the United States, but also in Europe) often work alongside OSINT researchers, sometimes feeding them information, and at other times acting on their findings. Due to this, OSINT has a high rate of false positives, and sometimes outright fabricates data to justify war or propaganda through the veneer of independent journalism. In this way, OSINT becomes part of the manufacturing consent pipeline, and serves to launder pro-war arguments to a different audience.

CIA Journalists

Though not 'open-source' in the strict sense, the term brainwashing was first exported to the United States by journalist Edward Hunter in the 1950s, during the invasion of Korea. Hunter was a CIA agent under cover as a journalist, and first used the term as a form of propaganda to discredit US troops who chose to defect and side with North Korea.

German journalist Udo Ulfkotte wrote in his book Presstitutes: Embedded in the Pay of the CIA that he and his colleagues were sometimes fed pre-formulated reports and articles that agencies such as the CIA or the BND (the German state intelligence agency) had written for him; they only required him to sign his name onto it and send it to his editor. Udo had been recruited as part of Operation Mockingbird, but his relationship with the agency lasted at least until 2005.

In 2014, the Intercept revealed that a Los Angeles Times reporter, Ken Dilanian, routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication. He also promised them positive news coverage.

Bellingcat

Bellingcat is a media outlet which purports to be an "independent international collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists" and often uses OSINT resources in their research. While Bellingcat claims to be independent, investigations have found that they are largely funded by various European, UK and US intelligence agencies — including the National Endowment for Democracy, the European Union itself, and the Human Rights Foundation (an organisation that solely targets governments outside the imperial core). A CIA official has declared that they "love" Bellingcat.

Since the Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa, Bellingcat has published six reports minimizing the genocide of the Palestinian people perpetrated by the Zionist Entity.

Uyghur genocide propaganda

During the Uyghur genocide atrocity fabrication in 2019, Buzzfeed reported supposed 'forced internment camps' they had found on Google Maps that turned out to be factories and schools, or could not be further identified. Buzzfeed's investigation was supported by the Open Technology Fund, an offshoot of the CIA mouthpiece Radio Free Asia. In this way, the media performs a "free and unbiased" investigation delivered to them by the CIA or other intelligence agencies which effectively launder the findings. Then, these intelligence agencies use the findings to promote more regime change propaganda. The three journalists received a Pulitzer prize for their investigation, which further solidified the validity of their findings in the eyes of the public. The Pulitzer Center, a sister foundation to the Prize, receives funding from the Gates Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation and the Clinton Family Foundation. In 2024, most of the Prize board consisted of mainstream, US-based anti-communist journalists (such as Anne Applebaum, herself a prize winner) from outlets aligned with the US government's foreign policy. Minouche Shafik, the President of Columbia University at the time, was also on the board. That same year, she sided with the police against her university's students during the protests and encampments for Palestine, and let New York police use violence against the unarmed and peaceful students, arresting over 100 of them.

Adrian Zenz was also a prominent figure during the height of the myth. He also relied on open-source intelligence, particularly leaked or even fabricated documents. In one instance, after he admitted that he couldn't read Chinese, Zenz made a claim that he calculated, from official statistical data from China, that 80% of all IUDs in China had been performed in Xinjiang, but the actual number was 8.7%. He was employed as a "senior fellow" by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation as per his own Twitter page. Then-secretary of State Mike Pompeo used Zenz's report in an official government press statement.

Gaza genocide campaign

In 2025, during the "Israeli"-conducted genocide of Gaza, Twitter user @VleckieHond posted a satellite image she obtained online, of what she claimed to have analyzed as a "possible Houthi military site". The site was subsequently bombed a few days after the post by the US military. Afterwards, Yemeni media reported that the strike killed 28 civilians in their homes in Sana'a, including children. VleckieHond had been publicly cited by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Sentinel, a US army office, as an "ever-resourceful analyst".

See also

• Limited hangout