| When | What | Where | How checked | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-18 14:05 | Photo said to show flooding 'today' | Image file from a public news post | Metadata date 2022-04-11; shadows and season fit spring | Saved copy + archived page |
| 2026-10-18 14:20 | Same photo, earlier copy | Reverse image search | Found on a public page dated 2022 | Archived page |
| 2026-10-18 14:31 | Conclusion | Two independent sources | Photo is older than claimed; place not yet confirmed | Note: say what is unknown |
How we work
Plan, collect, verify, record, share
Every skill on Osintian runs on the same five steps. They are the habits of newsroom verification desks and human-rights researchers, written out plainly so anyone can use them.
Write one question, and your reason for asking it
Research goes wrong at the start, when the question is vague. “Find out about this account” has no end and no limits. “Is the profile photo on this account copied from somewhere else?” has both.
Write the question at the top of your notes, with the lawful reason beside it: verification, journalism, fraud defence, due diligence on a business, or a check on yourself. If you cannot write a lawful reason, do not start. Read the ethics and rules if you are unsure.
Gather from public sources, and save as you go
Public means anyone can see it without a login, a trick or a fake account: news, public web pages, official registers, court records, maps, archived pages and the data inside a file you lawfully hold.
Pages change and disappear. Save what matters as you find it: the address, the time, a copy of the page, and, where the site allows it, an archived copy in a public web archive such as the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Check every key fact twice, independently
A key fact needs a second source that did not copy the first. Two news sites quoting the same post count as one source. A photo's metadata and the shadows in the picture are two different kinds of evidence; when they agree, confidence rises.
Keep clues and proof apart. A date in a file's metadata is a clue. The same date confirmed by an earlier archived copy of the picture is much stronger.
Keep a simple log
A log lets you, or anyone else, retrace your steps. It needs five columns and nothing fancy. Here is a short example from a fictional verification of a viral photo:
What 'checked' means on Osintian
- Sourced: every claim names its source, preferably the official or primary one.
- Dated: every tool mention carries the date we last looked at it. Tools change and close.
- Lawful first: every method page names its lawful purpose at the top and carries an “Is this lawful and ethical?” box.
- Fictional practice: worked examples use fictional people, organisations and places, or public figures in their public role.
For a deeper professional standard, the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations, published by the UN Human Rights Office with the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley, sets out how investigators should collect and preserve online evidence.