Module 1 video 1: Investigating people and social media accounts - Building a Profile
Summary
TLDRIn this investigative journalism course, Brandi Zadrazni, an NBC News reporter, teaches how to uncover people's stories and secrets through social media sleuthing. She demonstrates techniques for locating, archiving, and verifying social media accounts, using tools like Google, Namecheck, and reverse image search. The course emphasizes the importance of organization, verification, and using various platforms beyond the mainstream to build a comprehensive profile of a subject.
Takeaways
- 🔎 Investigative journalism often involves social media sleuthing to uncover a subject's real life and hidden online identities.
- 🗺️ Locating and archiving social media posts is crucial for breaking big stories quickly, especially those related to violent extremism.
- 🔍 The first step in social media investigation is usually using Google to search for the target's name, city, and state of residence.
- 📚 Utilizing Google's 'Tools' option to input a custom date range can help filter out noise and focus on relevant information.
- 🔑 Finding a username can lead to a broader search across platforms using tools like Namecheck to find availability across multiple sites.
- 👥 Public records services and free websites can provide relatives and associates useful for verifying accounts.
- 📧 Searching for emails in data breaches can validate email addresses and provide new leads for investigation.
- 📷 Reverse image search is a powerful tool for verifying photos and finding associated accounts across different platforms.
- 👪 Cross-referencing photos, biographical details, and family and friend associations are effective methods for account verification.
- 📅 Major life events like birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries celebrated on social media can offer opportunities for searching and investigating.
- 📝 Keeping an organized record of findings, verification processes, and evidence through notes, links, archives, and screenshots is essential for reproducing work.
Q & A
What is the primary focus of the course module presented by Brandi Zadrazni?
-The course module focuses on investigating people and their social media accounts, teaching how to use social media sleuthing techniques for investigative reporting.
How does social media play a role in investigative reporting according to the transcript?
-Social media platforms offer ways to learn about a subject's real life, secret thoughts, and hidden online identities, which can be crucial for breaking news and in-depth investigations.
What is the first step Brandi Zadrazni usually takes when investigating a person's social media presence?
-Brandi Zadrazni's first step is to use Google to search for the target's name in quotes along with their city and state of residence if available.
What tool or service does Brandi suggest using to find a person's username across multiple platforms?
-Brandi suggests using an online tool like Namecheck, which looks for username availability across various platforms.
How can one verify the authenticity of a social media account that might belong to the person of interest?
-Verification can be done by cross-referencing photos, biographical details, and family and friend associations, as well as using reverse image search to verify details in photos.
What is the significance of birthdays in verifying social media accounts during an investigation?
-Birthdays are significant because they are often celebrated on social media, providing an opportunity to confirm the identity of a person by looking for birthday wishes or posts on their account.
What are some alternative platforms to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that might be relevant for investigating younger targets?
-Alternative platforms include TikTok, gaming platforms, and other social media sites where younger individuals are more likely to be active.
How can one organize the findings during a social media investigation?
-One can use an investigation capture program or maintain a running document and folder system to organize accounts, images, and verification notes.
What is the importance of documenting the verification process and collecting evidence during an investigation?
-Documenting the verification process and collecting evidence ensures that the investigator can reproduce their work and provides a record in case information is deleted or altered.
What are some examples of major life events that can be used to search and investigate social media accounts?
-Examples include weddings, funerals, holidays, anniversaries, and graduations, as these events are often shared on social media and can lead to additional accounts or information.
What are some tools and websites that Brandi Zadrazni mentions for social media investigation?
-Brandi mentions Google, LinkedIn, public records services like LexisNexis, free websites like FastPeopleSearch, and niche search engines for more specific searches.
Outlines
🕵️♀️ Social Media Investigation Techniques
Brandi Zadrazni, an investigative reporter for NBC News, introduces the first module of a course on investigating people and their social media accounts. She emphasizes the importance of social media in uncovering real-life information and hidden identities. Zadrazni shares her approach to locating and archiving social media posts, which is crucial for breaking news stories quickly. She uses her own name for demonstration purposes and instructs viewers to choose a person to investigate. The process involves using Google to search for the target's name, city, and state, and then using tools like Namecheck to find the target's presence across various platforms. She also discusses the importance of verifying accounts through cross-referencing photos, biographical details, and family associations, and suggests using reverse image search for verification. Zadrazni advises keeping an organized record of findings and using various search engines to follow new leads.
🔎 Advanced Social Media Verification Strategies
In this paragraph, the focus shifts to advanced social media verification strategies. The speaker uses a real-life example of identifying a Twitter account potentially belonging to a mass shooter, leveraging unique handles, photos, and connections to family members on Facebook. The verification process includes using the advanced search function on Twitter and looking for birthday wishes on Facebook to confirm the target's identity. The speaker also provides tips on using platform-specific search functions and considering various platforms beyond the mainstream ones like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They highlight the importance of looking beyond faces, such as cars, homes, and pets, for connecting people and emphasize documenting the verification process with notes, links, archives, and screenshots to ensure reproducibility of the investigation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Social Media Sleuthing
💡Breaking News
💡Profile Backgrounding
💡Verification
💡Namecheck
💡Data Breaches
💡Reverse Image Search
💡Platform's Native Search Functions
💡Documenting Verification Process
💡Username Search Engines
Highlights
Introduction to the course on investigating people and social media accounts by Brandi Zadrozny, an investigative and features reporter for NBC News.
Importance of social media sleuthing in nearly every story reported, including breaking news and longer investigations.
Social media platforms as a key to learning about a subject's real life and hidden online identities.
Locating and archiving social media posts as crucial for breaking big stories quickly, including those revealing motivations behind violent extremist activities.
Using Google to search for a target's name in quotes along with their city and state of residence as the first step in the investigative process.
Utilizing Google's tools option and custom date range to filter search results relevant to a breaking news event.
Using public records services like LexisNexis or free websites like FastPeopleSearch to find relatives and associates for profile building.
Introducing Namecheck, an online tool for checking username availability across multiple platforms.
Emphasizing the importance of searching comment sections, reviews, and forums for potential leads on a subject's online presence.
Verifying new usernames or emails found by re-Googling them to gather additional information.
Using data breach search sites to validate email addresses and find new leads.
Recommendation to search major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok using their native search features.
The necessity of keeping an organized record of findings, including a running document and a folder for collected accounts and images.
Highlighting the verification process for social media accounts, including cross-referencing photos, biographical details, and family associations.
Using reverse image search to verify details in photos and find multiple new accounts.
Example of using reverse image search to connect accounts and build a network around a target in a case study involving anti-vaccination groups.
Strategies for verifying social media accounts of individuals who are not public figures but become newsworthy, such as mass shooters.
The use of birthdays, weddings, funerals, holidays, and anniversaries as markers for searching and investigating social media accounts.
Tips for searching targets using platform's native search functions and considering platforms beyond the usual suspects like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Advice on documenting the verification process and collecting evidence to ensure reproducibility of work.
Transcripts
hi welcome to the first module in this
course investigating people and social
media accounts
i'm brandi zadrazni an investigative and
features reporter for nbc news
nearly every story i report involves
some kind of social media sleuthing
from profile backgrounding to breaking
news to longer investigations
social media platforms offer some of the
best ways to learn about a subject's
real life
and give a window into secret thoughts
and hidden online identities
let's get started locating and archiving
social media posts has been the key to
breaking big stories fast
including ones that revealed motivations
behind a recent wave of shootings tied
to violent extremists and militia
movements
since we can't engineer a breaking news
event and we don't want to dox a private
citizen by mooc
i'll be using myself for many of the
searches i'm about to show you
but before we begin i'd like you to
choose a person to investigate
most breaking stories all i get is a
name and i have to determine
all that i can about that person and
their activities from their online
presence
as we discover accounts emails and
usernames associated with a person of
interest
we can start building out a profile
despite having
a lot of tools in my toolbox my first
step is usually google
google your target's name in quotes
along with the city and state of
residence if you have it
i'll be using my name a lot today but
you should plug in yours or the name of
your target
if you've got a breaking news situation
you may find a lot of noise here
it can help to use google's tools option
and input a custom date range
with the cutoff being a day or a week
before the breaking news event this is
my linkedin profile
it also gives me a username mine is
obvious and many are
i also use a public records service like
lexisnexis or people
but free websites like fastpeoplesearch
can also help get you started
and provide relatives and associates
that will be useful in verifying
accounts later on
i'll provide links for all of the sites
and tools i talk about later
when i have a username i'll plug it into
an online tool like namecheck
which looks for username availability
across multiple platforms
that aren't always picked up by the big
search engines you may not think all of
the results as places to glean much
but a lot of people tend to leave a
trail even in unexpected places
like comment sections reviews and forums
and that can lead you to information
and other accounts when i've found a new
username or email i think might belong
to my subject
i'll go back to google at first and
scoop up everything new that i can
now each of these accounts becomes a tip
something i need to verify and not all
of them are going to be correct
take a minute to enter the username that
you use across websites
and see what results you get
if you're looking for emails there are
also sites that search
data breaches for user information and
can be a quick way to validate an email
address and provide new leads
it's good practice to search the big
sites facebook instagram twitter and
tick tock
using their native search features
as you collect information you're gonna
want to keep things organized
you may have access to an investigation
capture program
but if not a running document of what
you know and a folder where you can
organize your findings will do fine
as you collect accounts and images
notate how you found the account and how
you verified it
and then take each new piece of
information you find a phone number an
email a username
run it through google and the other
niche search engines and follow those
new trails
so you found an account that you think
belongs to your target
the next step is verification there are
lots of ways to verify accounts
cross-referencing photos biographical
details
family and friend associations are a few
of the best
for photos you can use reverse image
search to verify details in a photo and
find multiple new accounts
here's an example this is one of the
most popular anti-vaccination websites
in the world
it's helmed by a social media marketer
who i wrote about for a story
about how women become radicalized in
anti-vaccination groups on facebook
i use a couple of extensions which allow
me to select an image and search for its
match across multiple platforms
we can use search by image to find other
accounts and websites that cook
may be behind these results across
bing yandex and tni point me to several
other anti-vaccination
and cova denial websites and fundraisers
all connected to cook
reverse image searching is less helpful
if you're investigating someone who's
not a public figure
but suddenly becomes news a mass shooter
for example
in those cases i've used photos of
people or things like
cars homes or pets as a way to connect
individual accounts
and build a network around my target
when we were trying to confirm the
social accounts of a man who shot and
killed nine people
outside of a bar in dayton ohio we got a
name
and a date of birth from police sources
we found a twitter account we thought
could be him
which also offered clues to his
political ideology
his handle was unique and didn't include
his real name or even a variation
but this twitter account did have photos
of a man
and a dog on facebook we found photos of
his family who had posted images of what
appeared to be the same dog
we used that as the first piece of
verification
the second was a post from his father
which also included the dog
and a happy birthday message since a
date of birth is often one of the first
identifying pieces of information given
by the police in a breaking news
situation
it's a reliable way to verify a social
media account
on twitter you can use the advanced
search function to identify a birthday
on facebook you can scroll to the month
and day in question on a suspected
account
and look out for birthday wishes or just
use the search function
after identifying close friends and
family who might post about it
birthdays are just one example weddings
funerals
holidays anniversaries graduations you
name it nearly every major life marker
is celebrated on social media
these provide an opening for searching
and investigating other accounts
i'll leave you with some tips search for
targets using platform's native search
functions but also in google and other
search engines
think about the platform don't focus
solely on facebook
instagram and twitter targets especially
younger ones may be more likely to be on
tick-tock or gaming platforms
this is where username search engines
can be really helpful
look out for more than just faces cars
homes and pets are a great way to
connect people
document your verification process and
collect all the evidence as you go in
case it's deleted
leave breadcrumbs in the form of notes
links archives and screenshots
otherwise you're down the rabbit hole
and you're unable to reproduce your work
i'll include my favorite applications
for capturing investigations in the
links below
that's all for now thanks
you
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