How did British broadcaster Channel 4 unveil the identity of the Twitter account @ShamiWitness, a major source of pro-Islamic propaganda that was seen two million times a month? Finding no photo or personal information on the account, the Channel 4 investigative team tracked the Twitter history of ShamiWitness, found its previous Twitter handle, used that information to search social media networks and eventually found the ShamiWitness creator in Bangalore. 

The resulting investigative story broadcast in December 2014 caused the man behind @ShamiWitness to stop tweeting. Simon Isreal, the Channel 4 correspondent who led the investigation, said in the report,  “But there are moments — and there are always moments — when the hidden trip up.”

The ShamiWitness search as well as other examples of using user-generated content and open source information for in-depth reporting can be found in the new Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting, A Guide to Online Search and Research Techniques Using UGC and Open Source Information in Investigations. 

The European Journalism Centre released the handbook, which is designed as a companion to its first Verification Handbook, A Definitive Guide to Verifying Digital Content for Emergency Coverage, published in early 2014.  The first handbook provided verification fundamentals as well as step-by-step guidance for how to verify user-generated content for breaking news. 

The new handbook goes beyond the fundamentals, focusing on how to mine for credible information from publicly available sources, and offering tips and techniques for testing and verifying the found information.

In 10 chapters and three case studies, you will find the knowledge and expertise gathered from some of the world’s leading media, research and civil society organizations, including BBC, Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting, the Arab Reporters for Investigative Reporting, Amnesty International, WITNESS, The SecDev Foundation and SAM (a social media search, curation and storytelling platform designed for the news industry).