What changed
Three things shifted simultaneously: commercial satellite imagery became routine, ubiquitous smartphone cameras created a flood of incident footage, and dedicated open communities (Bellingcat, GeoConfirmed, Conflict Intelligence Team, and many others) built workflows for cross-checking it. The result is that many wartime claims now have an independent verification track running parallel to official sources.
Typical workflow
- An incident is reported, often with a video or photo.
- OSINT investigators geolocate the footage (matching shadows, terrain, buildings, signage).
- Time of capture is bounded (sun angle, weather, posted timestamps, EXIF where present).
- The claim is checked against satellite imagery before and after.
- Attribution is constrained by weapons signatures, prior pattern, and named-actor presence.
- The chain of reasoning is published.
What strong OSINT does not do
- It does not produce certainty where the inputs don't support it.
- It does not adjudicate intent — even a geolocated strike doesn't tell you whether the strike was deliberate, accidental, or proportionate.
- It does not authenticate every piece of viral footage; most viral footage during active conflict is not, in fact, of the event it is being claimed to depict.