How Citizen Journalists Solved the Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

On the podcast: The founder of the group Bellingcat on using open sources to investigate war crimes and abuses.

By , the executive editor for podcasts at Foreign Policy.
Eliot Higgins in December 2018. (Claudia Leisinger for Foreign Policy)
Eliot Higgins in December 2018. (Claudia Leisinger for Foreign Policy)
Eliot Higgins in December 2018. (Claudia Leisinger for Foreign Policy)

At a moment when social media is being used to spread disinformation and influence elections around the world, one online group is doing the opposite: sifting through open source material on the internet to get at the truth—in war zones and elsewhere. The group, Bellingcat, has conducted investigations focusing on a range of issues, from the Syrian civil war to Russia's poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. It is now working on a probe of the war in Yemen.

On First Person this week, Bellingcat's founder, Eliot Higgins, describes how he and his colleagues conducted their very first investigation nearly five years ago, into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over Ukraine.

 

At a moment when social media is being used to spread disinformation and influence elections around the world, one online group is doing the opposite: sifting through open source material on the internet to get at the truth—in war zones and elsewhere. The group, Bellingcat, has conducted investigations focusing on a range of issues, from the Syrian civil war to Russia’s poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. It is now working on a probe of the war in Yemen.

On First Person this week, Bellingcat’s founder, Eliot Higgins, describes how he and his colleagues conducted their very first investigation nearly five years ago, into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over Ukraine.

 

 

More from Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a commission on military-technical cooperation with foreign states in 2017.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a commission on military-technical cooperation with foreign states in 2017.

What’s the Harm in Talking to Russia? A Lot, Actually.

Diplomacy is neither intrinsically moral nor always strategically wise.

Officers with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) wait outside an apartment in Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine.
Officers with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) wait outside an apartment in Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine.

Ukraine Has a Secret Resistance Operating Behind Russian Lines

Modern-day Ukrainian partisans are quietly working to undermine the occupation.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron wave as they visit the landmark Brandenburg Gate illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag in Berlin on May 9, 2022.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron wave as they visit the landmark Brandenburg Gate illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag in Berlin on May 9, 2022.

The Franco-German Motor Is on Fire

The war in Ukraine has turned Europe’s most powerful countries against each other like hardly ever before.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor during his remarks before signing an executive order on the economy in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
U.S. President Joe Biden holds a semiconductor during his remarks before signing an executive order on the economy in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.

How the U.S.-Chinese Technology War Is Changing the World

Washington’s crackdown on technology access is creating a new kind of global conflict.