Sources of Information for social media open source intelligence networks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict
In the social media open source intelligence network, the social media platform is
not only the circulation field of open source intelligence, but also the information
source of open source intelligence. The study found that there are three main
sources of information for the intelligence network.
1. Collect
public data through big data mining technology
Big data mining
is an important means for military bloggers to obtain open source intelligence.
Military bloggers use big data mining technology to obtain open source data and
conduct intelligence analysis from social platforms, public websites, satellite maps
and other channels, and often share intelligence content on social media in the form
of visual charts. For example, Ragnar Gudmundsson (@ragnarbjartur), an Icelandic
political scientist and economist, extensively collects open source information
related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Relying on Google’s data studio platform
Looker Studio, he creates and operates a visualization website that records data on
the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield. The information sources of the visualization
website include not only the Ministry of National Defense of Russia and Ukraine, but
also third-party organizations such as the United Nations Refugee Agency, NATO, and
the US State Department, as well as the open source intelligence research
self-organization "Oryx" and personal blogger Lee Drak.
2. Relying
on social platforms to build open source intelligence network
communities
In order to promote the sharing and exchange of
open source intelligence to the greatest extent, some open source intelligence
self-organizations and personal bloggers created open source intelligence online
communities on popular foreign social platforms such as Twitter, Discord, and
Telegram. According to the difference in the strength of relationship connections
provided by social platforms, open source intelligence online communities can be
divided into the following two types.
a. Open source intelligence network
communities in the environment of "weak ties"
Twitter is an overseas social
platform based on "weak ties". Military bloggers have established a relatively close
open-source intelligence relationship network on Twitter by following, liking,
reposting, and commenting, etc., to achieve a relatively "strong connection" of
social relations guided by personal interests and using open-source intelligence as
a medium. The results of social network analysis show that a group of military
bloggers @oryxspioenkop, @bellingcat, @Osinttechnical, @DefMon3, etc. have formed a
closely connected online community of concern on the Twitter platform.
b.
Open source intelligence network communities in the environment of "strong ties"
Discord is a foreign social platform that provides voice chat services.
Users with the same hobbies can initiate the establishment of exclusive chat
servers, and each chat server forms a community that can be made public or private,
and community members thus form a "strong connection" of social relationships.
"Project Owl" is currently the largest open source intelligence online community
known to be established on Discord, with 31,800 members. The "Project Owl" community
includes #russia-ukraine-news, #ru-ua-speculation, #russia-ukraine-osint and other
hashtags related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The creators of hashtags
@monarchiav, @vexovex, @Nukes and others are from the United States, Israel, Ukraine
and other countries. New York Times visual investigative reporter Evan Hill
(@evanhill) also co-founded the community.
3. Use crowdsourcing
mechanism to realize information sharing and co-construction of intelligence
database
Military bloggers rely on social media to establish an
open source intelligence network community, providing support for relationship
connections for intelligence sharing. Some voluntary organizations use the
"crowdsourcing" mechanism to collect open source information and reproduce and
utilize it, and jointly build an open source intelligence library with the help of
visualization. Both the open-source intelligence database "Russio-Ukrainian
Warspotting" and the open-source map "Eyes on Russia" use crowdsourcing mechanisms
to form a "peer production" model for collecting and sharing information on the
conflict between Russia and Ukraine.