Here's a video about my recent investigation into more than two dozen accounts using AI-generated doctors and health professionals to push dubious advice and sell products on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube: indicator.media/p/ai-generat...

Behind it is an industrial operation that figured out how to make advertising invisible. I found a Miami creator who posted ~300 videos going back 8 months that often say she caught her cheating husband and will leave him "tomorrow." It's all a paid ad for an app, but users don't know.

→ Creators making misleading or false claims about their lives in order to pitch products → Platforms failing to enforce their policies I analyzed 6+ campaigns, spoke to creators, and interviewed marketers who openly talked about how their ads are "undetectable."

2+ billion views generated by campaigns with rampant violations of TikTok's Branded Content policy, and likely violations of FTC rules for social media endorsements → College students recruited to mass-produce "authentic" content

Just a heads up that this is the best time to join @indicator.media as a member because it's 20% off. We'll keep you on top of OSINT tools/trends, build your investigative skills, and deliver exclusive reporting about digital deception/disinfo. Plus monthly workshops! Info: indicator.media/upgrade

One of my favorite things is that one the (relatively few) people praising his entrepreneurial spirit is a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient...

Incredible stuff on LinkedIn. Cofounder of AI notetaker says they told early customers that there's an "AI that'll join a meeting.” But it was really just him and cofounder joining & manually taking notes. No AI. Comments flame him. He posts reply trying to kind of walk it back. Overall: Total bait.

Trump posted a screenshot of a totally false claim about Obama collecting gov royalties for use of the name "Obamacare" (lmao) What's notable is the hoax came from a site + FB page network that I reported is earning big money from Meta's content monetization program: indicator.media/p/brakes-are...

Absolutely fantastic photo for this Globe And Mail story www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...

One video ad began with a young woman on her knees being lightly slapped across the face, and ended with an image of the app’s menu of sexual positions:

In roughly 3 months, Indicator has been responsible for thousands of takedowns of deceptive/abusive content on major platforms. Why not sharpen your investigative skills and support independent journalism by taking advantage of our 20% membership discount indicator.media/upgrade

Anastasiia Mozghova, a DressX spokesperson, told me in an email that the ads were managed by an “external partner.” Here's more of the company's statement:

Meta told me it's reviewing the pages I shared. One of the pages it declined to remove back in Feb. is Entrepreneur Mindset, which has 2.7 million followers. Since then it has published hundreds of hoaxes and other deceptive content, including recent false claims about Vanessa Bryant:

A nice thing: @mantzarlis.com and I were named to Project C's Top 50 Creator-Model Journalists list. We're in some amazing company. Read the full list: projectc.biz/top50creator... And subscribe @indicator.media for free to see what we're doing: indicator.media

There are more web-based facial recognition tools than ever. But what do we actually know about them? I uncovered surprising info about 9 services: 🔎 One is run from Iran 🔎 One uses pics of fake customers 🔎 Some won't say who owns them More @indicator.media: indicator.media/p/facial-rec... #OSINT

Please reach out if you have information or insights to share about the BEAD program at the federal, state or local level. I'm happy to speak privately:

Here's the full email. Feinman's term ended and he was not reappointed. The Commerce Dept. is still weighing how it will change BEAD, but its stated preference for a low-cost, "tech neutral" use of funds could mean billions more for satellite operators like Starlink.

BREAKING: The head of the $42 billion federal BEAD program that aims to bring broadband internet to rural and unserved areas has left the Commerce Dept. He sent a departing email warning of "deeply negative outcomes" for people if the Trump admin shifts $$ from fiber internet to Musk's Starlink:

The links in this thread have responses from Meta. Re: our reporting, Meta removed some ads after first approving them, but failed to catch others with similar/identical content — or to prevent new pages & ads. It had removed about half of the pages flagged by us prior to being contacted.

We found over 100,000 US political/issues ads with misleading advertiser info that concealed who actually paid for the ad. We found pages that falsely claimed to be affiliated with the government. We saw at least thousands of ads with undisclosed use of AI images and video.

As noted in its post, Meta requires political & social issue advertisers to register and to prove their location and ID. Meta places a disclaimer on ads to show who paid for it. And it recently required advertisers to disclose if they used AI to alter an image/video. about.fb.com/news/2024/12...

Meta released a review of activity on its platforms during an unprecedented year of elections. It covers a lot of ground but fails to address how Meta’s political ad system has been abused to scam and deceive people on a global scale during such a critical year for democracy. Here’s a rundown 🧵:

"So deepfake Elon Musk clickbait was used to sell deepfake Schwarzenegger endorsements of shady supplements. That’s 2024 in a nutshell for you." fakedup.substack.com...

Here's my latest (free!) Digital Investigations newsletter. It's got: 📍 Useful Bluesky tools & tips 📍 New tools for YouTube, AI prompts, username search & more! 📍 Webinars and articles to help with research and reporting Read/subscribe: digitalinvestigation...

Big [If True] is a new weekly show from TVO. It helps viewers navigate the false narratives & fake news bombarding our feeds. The first episode is tonight at 8 pm ET! You can also watch clips/full episodes on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@BigIfTrueTVO More info here: www.tvo.org/big-if-true

As expected, Trump named Brendan Carr to chair the FCC. Carr is a big fan of Starlink and is vocal about the need to reform the protections that Section 230 gives big tech. Here’s his recent thread about big tech, the “censorship cartel,” and his concerns about NewsGuard and fact checkers.

Interesting analysis of election day, and post-election, traffic on Twitter, Bluesky, Threads & Truth Social. The charts show a spike in Twitter deactivations after the election, and a spike in Bluesky traffic: www.similarweb.com/b...

An example: In Dec the verified FB page of Fox News meteorologist Adam Klotz began running ads featuring a Trump deepfake promising “$6,400 with your name on it, no payback required.” Other ads mimicked Biden's voice to make the same offer. There was no free cash.

We found over 100,000 ads with misleading advertiser information that concealed who actually paid for the ad. We found pages that falsely claimed to be affiliated with the government. We found verified FB pages that were hacked and used to run scammy ads.