Open-Source Intelligence
Intelligence derived from publicly available material — social media, satellite imagery, public records — rather than classified sources, verified through a transparent, reproducible method (geolocation, chain-of-custody tracing, cross-referencing satellite imagery). Bellingcat's MH17 investigation is the founding case: open-source geolocation of convoy photographs reconstructed a missile launcher's route years before a formal, classified state investigation reached compatible conclusions. OSINT does not close the asymmetry between how cheap it is to fabricate a claim and how expensive it is to verify one — it gives verification a transparent, checkable method, which is a more modest and more accurate claim than 'OSINT solves misinformation.'