I found this a very readable book and I really enjoyed it too.
The style of writing is very good, pace, tone and narrative style all make it engaging, interesting and exciting even without any padding out. There is a good amount of end notes, and as you would expect from the story of the inception and development of an investigative reporting group, ample evidence to support all their findings.
While it is about investigative reporting by internet sleuths, the standards that this group set themselves and their following to establishing fact from fiction are commendable. Really they are. For anyone who has laboured the point of media bias or suspected propaganda playing some role in reportage this book ought to be for you. I say ought to be because I can see how the burgeoning conspiracy community, which the author describes as the "counterfactual community" will dislike them just as much as any other media (and the rationale behind doing so and circular thinking involved is explained quite well).
There is some horrible content described unflinchingly, the wars in Syria, Ukraine (predating the current open warfare), the chemical weapons poisoning in London, the chemical weapons attacks upon civilians in Syria and it can make for pretty perturbing reading. The author themselves actually includes information about how they had to adopt policies or raise awareness about vacarious trauma. I can see why, and also how that has influenced what ways internet content hosting sites, like Youtube, try to do to police their content.
I liked this book, not simply because of the open source investigation angle, which was kind of new to me and I was initially skeptical about but because in some ways it is a short history of recent online culture and subcultures. From Something Awful, to Reddit, to 4Chan, to 8Chan, to 8Kun, to the wider space of YouTube, Facebook and beyond. There is also a great eye to curious convergences between far left and far right groups online, how this is exploited by menacing state actors, even while the legions of self-radicalized and duped non-state actors could pose the greatest security risk to investigators and wider society.
I felt this was balanced, which I liked to see, I've read a single positive book written about the internet and early net culture, I've about half a dozen doomsayers who write convincingly about the internet being the shallows, the middle mind, a den of villainy and vice (literally on both counts). There has been at least one decent documentary series making the point about how the internet does allow "make believe" of the worst sort to run totally and utterly amok to everyone's detriment. The author of this book strikes out with a more balanced point that its not necessary to give in to this "internet miserableism", it can function differently and to everyone's benefit instead. As with the other content about the "counterfactual community" the author makes some good points about online community life.
Communities of individuals whose primary socialisation was gaming, grown disillusioned with life as it did not follow anything like a game play format, could easily be drawn into toxic forums suggesting life is just "ugly and pointless". Then before long a downshift in thinking making them susceptible to radicalization, whether its political islam or far right conspiracy its a similar process.
I've witnessed this a lot, beyond the news headlines of spree killers and directly in my own personal experience of others online, and more than a few times have thought about "peak internet" or permanently going offline as a good idea. Its good to see groups like Belling Cat redeeming the technologies as they aim to. The name arises from a story about mice deciding to put a bell on a cat in order that they might be alert to its presence and survive its attentions, or "belling the cat".
Now, I would say, at the odd time the author does appear "boastful" in some ways, I'll permit them that but I know anyone reading this with a hostile eye is going to probably find grounds for dismissing it on that basis. After all commercial interests, infotainment and capitalist priorities or bias, are used often enough to dismiss other sorts of media reportage (sometimes with some justification). That said, Belling Cat, and the author themselves, seem to be all about voluntarism, they may be "internet sleuths" but that has its place and some of these roles are too important to be left up to salaried professionals anyway.
A good read and I recommend it to anyone, deserves as wide a readership as possible. Recommended.
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The things you can find out from the internet!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2021
Eliot Higgins is founder of Bellingcat; a team of internet investigators who call themselves an intelligence agency for the people. In this book, Higgins explains how Bellingcat came to be, how it has grown, and how, using skills, knowledge and techniques which you may not even realise are possible, Bellingcat have made discoveries about major world events that even governments couldn’t, such as the war in Syria, Malaysian flight MH70 and the Salisbury Novichok poisonings. The governments are aware of Bellingcat’s discoveries but what they choose to do about it is anyone’s guess. All Bellingcat can do is keep working for the sake of the people.I have to admit, when I requested an ARC of this book from @netgalley, I didn’t realise it was a non-fiction book. Possibly because it sounded like a really good plot! And I think that shows how remarkable and unbelievable the work of Bellingcat is. Eliot Higgins goes into depth to explain how his team of both professional and citizen journalists specialise in fact checking and open source intelligence to investigate and find answers way before and government or secret service officials could. I found it easy to get lost in the political jargon and events at times, but this didn’t stop me from realising and appreciating the fascinating work which Bellingcat do. It really is quite shocking what you can find out from the internet if you know the right places to look. Because of getting a little lost at times I give it 3/5 stars.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2021
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