Our “OSINT Toolkit to Detect and Analyse IBD-focused FIMI” has been recently published by the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Drawing from the legacy of last year’s EEAS report on “FIMI targeting LGBTIQ+ people”, the report explores further the intersection of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) with Identity-Based Disinformation (IBD), and provides guidelines for conducting public-interest open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigations. In this regard, the ObSINT guidelines have been a crucial reference, now reinforced through the identity lens.
Moreover, the report develops a toolkit that includes a catalogue of OSINT tools for tasks such as archiving digital evidence, assessing coordination between actors, verifying the authenticity of content and perpetrators, tracing the source of attacks, and evaluating the overall impact of disinformation operations.
These tools – often referring to the InVID-WeVerify verification plugin – enable addressing the “5Ws” of an online ecosystem threat assessment, providing comprehensive insights into FIMI.
Ultimately, the goal of the guidelines and toolkit is two-fold: raising awareness within the OSINT community about adopting an identity-focused perspective while equipping victims and activists with tools to detect and analyse incidents.
To bring the work and research findings to a larger community, EU DisinfoLab organised a webinar with the authors Maria Giovanna Sessa and Raquel Miguel Serrano (EU DisinfoLab) to present the report. The event took place on 12 December 2024 from 14:30-15:30 CET and was moderated by Chiara Pacenti (EEAS).
