Eurovision News Spotlight

AI on the frontlines: How fakes go viral in Middle East war Verifying the facts of the Iran war amid a sea of false claims and AI-generated material

The Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran on Saturday, February 28 and the resulting retaliatory strikes from Tehran saw the outbreak of the world’s newest war last weekend.

See how journalists are verifying the facts of the Iran war amid a sea of false claims and AI-generated material:

Yang Mun: The Google AI-generated persona reaching millions An Eastern-style healer offering life advice based on 'ancient Chinese philosophy' to his millions of followers was created with Google AI

Yang Mun: The Google AI-generated persona reaching millions in the wellness market spotlight.ebu.ch/p/yang-mun-a...

Iran Crackdown: Tehran Death Toll & Kahrizak Morgue Updates Latest reports on the Iran protest death toll as new videos bypass the internet blackout. Verified footage shows the processing of bodies at Kahrizak morgue.

🚨 Inside Kahrizak morgue

New verified footage confirms the scale of the lethal crackdown in Tehran. Frame-by-frame analysis of body bags and transport trucks matches known sites, contradicting state narratives.

Read the full field guide:
open.substack.com/pub/ebuspotl...

Dispatch: The data stays on - piercing the Iranian blackout Mapping the Iran blackout, the Greenland "Donroe" crisis, and a frame-by-frame analysis of the Minneapolis ICE shooting

Piercing the Iran blackout 🇮🇷

Our latest Dispatch: How we verified Kahrizak morgue footage during a near-total internet shutdown.

Plus: 📍 Minneapolis ICE shooting analysis ⚙️ Snowflake, Sherlock & OSINT tools 🇬🇱 The Greenland crisis
open.substack.com/pub/ebuspotl...

Sentiment Analysis Guide for Investigative Journalists Learn how to use Python and NLP to track narrative shifts, detect bot-driven vitriol, and quantify public emotion in investigative reporting.

How do you find the signal in 50k Telegram messages? 🔍💻

My latest OSINT tutorial explores using Python & sentiment analysis to map emotional "divergence" in public discourse. A step-by-step guide for investigators to move from observation to evidence.

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/journalist...

Verified morgue footage hints at scale of Iran's crackdown Graphic videos filmed in Tehran province were confirmed to be recent and showed Iranians searching for relatives among the dead

How we verified the Kahrizak footage during a near-total internet blackout:

🏛️ Architecture: Matches known renderings of the Forensic Diagnostic & Laboratory Centre. 🗓️ Metadata: On-screen monitors show "Photo X out of 250" with Jan 9 timestamps.

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/iran-prote...

Iran internet blackout: Digital forensics & verification Navigate the 2026 Iran blackout with digital forensic tools. Learn to track IRGC narratives and verify UGC with help from NetBlocks and Filterwatch.

🇮🇷 With #Iran facing a nationwide internet blackout, verifying info is harder than ever. We’ve mapped the state organs, parallel intelligence agencies, and forensic tools needed to verify the ground truth. 🧵 #OSINT

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/iran-inter...

Iran internet blackout: Digital forensics & verification Navigate the 2026 Iran blackout with digital forensic tools. Learn to track IRGC narratives and verify UGC with help from NetBlocks and Filterwatch.

Das Verifikationsnetzwerk @spotlight.ebu.ch, zu dem auch der ORF gehört, hat Accounts gesammelt, mit denen man starten kann, sich einen Überblick über die Lage im Iran zu verschaffen.
spotlight.ebu.ch/p/iran-inter...

Photos of Nicolás Maduro's capture by U.S. forces are AI While the White House confirmed a Delta Force operation in Venezuela, many images circulating on social media were digital forgeries

A slew of other similar images were also circulating, purporting to show Maduro being paraded around the airfield after his arrest by U.S. forces.

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/maduro-cap...

The investigator’s guide to website infrastructure: WHOIS, SSL, and server fingerprinting A blueprint for passive OSINT: Learn how to uncover hidden ownership and link digital networks using technical signatures

Websites are more than digital storefronts—they are maps of hidden connections. 🕵️‍♂️💻

We've just released "The investigator’s guide to website infrastructure," a blueprint for using WHOIS, SSL, and server fingerprinting to uncover hidden networks.

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/website-in...

2025 in review: How we fact-checked a year of global crisis From Israel's wars to a pope's death and anti-migrant riots in Europe, explore the top investigations from Eurovision News Spotlight’s inaugural year

2025 was a wild year for facts. 🔍

From AI-generated Popes to $100k World Cup tickets and the digital frontlines of the Iran-Israel war, Eurovision News Spotlight spent the year deconstructing the noise. Check out our top investigations from a year of global crisis:

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/2025-news-...

go.bsky.app/5foSEvw

Eurovision News Spotlight | Fact-Checking & OSINT Network | EBU News | Substack Eurovision News Spotlight is a network of public service broadcasters working collaboratively in fact-checking and OSINT. Click to read Eurovision News Spotlight | Fact-Checking & OSINT Network, a Sub...

What you get at spotlight.ebu.ch:
🔎 High-level cross-border fact-checks
🧠 Deep dives into synthetic media & CIB
🔦 Targeted election investigations
🗓️ OSINT monthly masterclasses & workflows
🛠️ Technical tutorials (geolocation, etc.)
📡 Rapid-response briefings

Navigating ECLI and PACER: A technical guide to accessing international legal records A scalable methodology for OSINT researchers to bridge the gap between the European e-Justice Portal and US federal litigation databases

Social media hints aren't enough—investigative journalism needs the "gold standard" of evidence: court records.

New tutorial on navigating global legal databases: 🔹 ECLI (EU) & PACER (US) 🔹 Using SHA-256 to hash evidence 🔹 Private AI for legal translation

spotlight.ebu.ch/p/searching-...

In today’s Fact-Check & OSINT Review, Belén López Garrido explores the intersection of undercover reporting and open-source intelligence. Representing the EBU Investigative Journalism Network, she details the essential role of covert work in their recent hybrid warfare exposé.

OSINT Review #14: Sudan Weapons & Donor 7069 Investigation See how France 24 and the EBU Investigative Journalism Network tracked chemical weapons in Sudan and exposed the "Donor 7069" crisis in OSINT Review #14.

France 24 and the EBU Investigative Journalism Network reveal how forensic OSINT and cross-border collaboration exposed global health and weapon crises
spotlight.ebu.ch/p/fact-check...

The Bondi Beach terror attack: Unpacking the viral lies and fact-checking the hero's misidentification See the most viral lies after the Sydney terror attack, how the hero was misidentified as Edward Crabtree, and Grok's AI failure

📰 New Fact-Check Dispatch - The Bondi Beach terror attack: Unpacking the viral lies and fact-checking the hero's misidentification
spotlight.ebu.ch/p/bondi-beac...
📝 @maria.ebu.ch

#OSINT #factchecking #EBUSpotlight

Financial OSINT: Guide to tracing corporate assets & networks Learn the step-by-step methodology for financial OSINT, including accessing global corporate registries and tracing assets to sanctioned individuals

🚨 NEW Tutorial: Financial OSINT. 🚨

Learn the step-by-step methodology for legally tracing corporate assets, beneficial ownership, and sanctioned networks.
spotlight.ebu.ch/p/guide-trac...

#OSINT #EBUSpotlight #journalism

Eurovision 2026: Fake boycotts, the fired cartoonist, and the 'cancelled' contest Debunking viral claims about the Eurovision 2026 boycott, Martin Rowson, Poland, and more

Debunking viral claims about the #Eurovision 2026 boycott, Martin Rowson, Poland, and more #factchecking #OSINT
spotlight.ebu.ch/p/eurovision...