CapybaraNet links only to organizations and tools that are publicly documented, independently operated, and transparent about their methodology. This page lists all external references used across the site.
✅ Fact-checking organizations
Snopes
One of the longest-running fact-checking operations on the internet. Specializes in viral rumors, urban legends, hoaxes, and internet misinformation. Strong on sourcing and transparent about its methodology and corrections policy.
FactCheck.org
Run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Focuses on political claims, public policy, and statements by elected officials. Rigorous sourcing and nonpartisan editorial standards.
PolitiFact
Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking operation run by the Poynter Institute. Rates political claims on a "Truth-O-Meter" scale and publishes full sourcing and reasoning for every rating.
Reuters Fact Check
Reuters' dedicated fact-checking desk. Particularly strong on image and video verification and viral claims. IFCN member with publicly documented standards.
Full Fact
Independent UK-based nonprofit fact-checking organization. Highly transparent about methodology. Covers UK politics, health, crime, and immigration claims. IFCN signatory.
Lead Stories
Tracks trending misinformation and viral claims in real time using its "Trendolizer" technology. Covers politics, health misinformation, and social media hoaxes. IFCN member.
AFP Fact Check Methodology
Agence France-Presse's documentation of its professional fact-checking process. One of the most detailed public explanations of how major news agencies verify claims, images, and videos. Recommended reading for understanding verification at scale.
Fact-Check Insights
A global structured database of fact checks from verified organizations around the world. Useful for searching whether a claim has already been investigated by a credentialed fact-checker.
EUvsDisinfo
Run by the European External Action Service. Tracks and documents pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives and influence operations targeting European audiences. Maintains a searchable database of identified disinformation cases.
🖼️ Image & video verification tools
TinEye
Reverse image search engine specialized in finding where an image first appeared online. Useful for detecting images being reused out of context. Indexes over 60 billion images.
Google Lens
Google's visual search tool. Allows reverse image search directly from a photo or screenshot. Available in Chrome browser via right-click. Fast and widely accessible for non-expert users.
InVID / WeVerify
Browser plugin heavily used by professional journalists and AFP fact-checkers. Breaks videos into individual keyframes for reverse image searching, extracts metadata, and helps verify social media content. Free and open source.
ExifTool
Command-line tool for reading and writing metadata embedded in image, audio, and video files. Can reveal the original camera model, GPS coordinates, date and time, and editing software.
FotoForensics
Web-based tool for detecting image manipulation at the pixel level. Uses error level analysis (ELA) to highlight areas of an image that have been digitally altered or composited.
SunCalc
Shows the position and angle of the sun at any location and time of day. Used by OSINT investigators to verify the claimed location and time of photographs by matching shadow angles to known solar geometry.
Google Fact Check Explorer
Google's searchable index of fact checks published by verified fact-checking organizations worldwide. Allows quick lookup of whether a specific claim or image has already been investigated.
🤖 Deepfake & AI-generated media detection
Reality Defender
Commercial platform for detecting AI-generated synthetic media across video, audio, and images. Used by newsrooms and enterprises to screen content before publication or broadcast.
TrueMedia
Publicly accessible deepfake detection platform designed for journalists, researchers, and everyday users. Analyzes uploaded video and audio for signs of AI synthesis or manipulation.
WITNESS Lab
Technology lab focused on authenticating video evidence and detecting manipulated media. Publishes guides on verifying video authenticity, originally developed for human rights documentation and legal contexts.
🗄️ Archival & evidence preservation tools
Internet Archive Wayback Machine
The essential tool for retrieving deleted, altered, or paywalled web pages. Stores snapshots of billions of pages going back to 1996. Critical for verifying that content existed at a specific time or has been quietly edited since publication.
Wayback Machine Save
The Wayback Machine's direct save function. Paste any URL to immediately archive a live webpage. Use before sharing or citing anything that may be deleted or changed.
Archive.today
Fast, reliable webpage archiving service that creates stable, permanent snapshots. Particularly useful for archiving social media posts and paywalled content. Generates a fixed URL that can be cited as evidence.
Perma.cc
Evidence preservation service recommended by AFP for investigative journalists. Creates legally robust archived records of webpages with tamper-evident timestamps. Used by law schools and courts for preserving digital evidence.
Diffchecker
Tool for comparing two versions of text or documents side by side. Useful for identifying what has been changed between two versions of a webpage, article, or official statement.
Versionista
Ongoing monitoring service that tracks changes to webpages over time and alerts users when content is altered. Useful for monitoring government websites, corporate pages, and political statements for undisclosed edits.
🛠️ OSINT & investigation tools
OSINT Framework
A comprehensive, organized catalog of open-source intelligence tools covering social media, domain research, email investigation, geolocation, and more. A starting point for any structured online investigation.
ICANN WHOIS Lookup
The official WHOIS lookup tool operated by ICANN. Used to find domain registration dates, registrant information, and hosting details — useful for identifying anonymous or recently created websites.
Hoaxy
Research tool from Indiana University that visualizes how claims and misinformation spread across social networks. Shows sharing networks, bot amplification patterns, and the velocity of viral claims.
Shadowserver Foundation Dashboard
The Shadowserver Foundation operates internet security monitoring infrastructure including sinkholes that capture botnet traffic. Their public dashboard shows real-time data on compromised devices, malware infections, and botnet activity by country — including BADBOX 2.0 infected device counts.
Bellingcat How-To Guides
Bellingcat's library of open-source investigation guides. Covers geolocation, image verification, social media investigation, flight tracking, and more. Written by working investigators and freely available to the public.
MuckRock
Platform for filing, tracking, and sharing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in the United States. Maintains a public library of government documents obtained through FOIA.
DocumentCloud
Platform for uploading, sharing, and annotating primary source documents. Used extensively by investigative journalists to publish source documents alongside their reporting. Searchable public library of millions of government and legal documents.
💰 Funding, ownership & accountability tools
OpenSecrets
The most comprehensive public database of U.S. political campaign finance, lobbying spending, and revolving-door personnel. Run by the Center for Responsive Politics. Essential for tracing money in American politics.
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer
Searchable database of IRS Form 990 filings from U.S. nonprofit organizations. 990s reveal revenue, expenses, executive compensation, and major donors. Useful for verifying the funding and financial interests behind think tanks, advocacy groups, and media organizations.
InfluenceWatch
Database of profiles on U.S. nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, and their funding networks. Useful for researching organizational affiliations and identifying undisclosed funding relationships.
Ground News
Media bias and ownership tracking platform. Shows the political lean of news outlets, their ownership structures, and which stories are being covered or ignored across the political spectrum.
⚖️ Media bias & literacy
Ad Fontes Media — Media Bias Chart
Colorado-based nonpartisan public benefit corporation. Produces the Media Bias Chart, which rates over 4,300 news sources on two axes: political bias (left to right) and reliability. Analysts across the political spectrum rate individual articles; scores are aggregated into source-level ratings.
AllSides
Presents news stories with left, center, and right coverage side by side. Useful for identifying how different outlets frame the same story and for spotting framing-based manipulation.
News Literacy Project
U.S. nonprofit focused on news and media literacy education. Provides free teaching resources, fact-check tools, and a student-facing platform called Checkology.
MediaWise (Poynter)
Digital media literacy initiative run by the Poynter Institute. Covers how to spot misinformation, evaluate sources, and navigate the social media information environment.
📡 Misinformation & influence operation research
Stanford Internet Observatory
Research group at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute studying online influence operations, platform manipulation, and the misuse of social media. Has investigated and exposed numerous state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
Stanford IO Monthly
Monthly briefing from the Stanford Internet Observatory tracking ongoing influence operations and platform manipulation cases. Useful for staying current on documented disinformation activity.
Graphika
Network analysis firm specializing in mapping influence operations, bot campaigns, and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Has produced landmark reports on Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence networks.
Graphika Reports Library
Graphika's public library of investigation reports. Covers documented influence operations including BADBOX, Russian IRA successor networks, Chinese Spamouflage, and commercial troll farm operations.
Bellingcat
The gold standard for open-source investigative journalism. Has documented war crimes, identified intelligence operatives, geolocated conflict imagery, and tracked influence operations — all using publicly available information.
First Draft
International nonprofit focused on misinformation research and journalist training. Has produced influential research on information disorder, verification techniques, and the psychology of misinformation.
Center for an Informed Public (UW)
University of Washington research center studying how misinformation spreads and how to build resilience against it. Has produced research on rumor propagation, COVID-19 misinformation, and election disinformation ecosystems.
DFRLab / Foreign Influence Accountability Tracker
The Digital Forensic Research Lab, operated by the Atlantic Council. Tracks foreign influence operations targeting elections and democratic institutions.
🎓 Academic & institutional research
IFCN — International Fact-Checking Network
Global body that sets ethics and transparency standards for fact-checking organizations. IFCN signatories must commit to nonpartisanship, transparency of funding and methodology, corrections policies, and open sourcing.
Pew Research Center
Nonpartisan American think tank that conducts public opinion polling and social science research. Produces extensive data on news consumption habits, media trust, political polarization, and information behavior.
Harvard Berkman Klein Center
Harvard Law School research center studying internet and society. Covers misinformation, platform governance, digital rights, and internet policy.
MIT Media Lab
Interdisciplinary research lab at MIT. Home to influential research on how false news spreads faster and more broadly than true news online. Also researches network behavior and information flow in digital environments.
Google Scholar
Free academic search engine indexing peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, and court opinions. Always check whether a paper is peer-reviewed and who funded the research.
Semantic Scholar
AI-powered academic search engine from the Allen Institute for AI. Indexes over 200 million academic papers and provides citation context, influence scores, and related research.
🏛️ Government documents & legal records
GovInfo.gov
Official U.S. Government Publishing Office repository for federal government documents. Includes congressional hearings, federal regulations, presidential documents, and agency reports.
Congress.gov
Official repository of U.S. congressional records including bill text, voting records, committee reports, and floor debate transcripts. Essential for verifying claims about legislation, votes, and official congressional statements.
PACER — Public Access to Court Electronic Records
Federal court records system providing access to U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate court filings. Used to access indictments, civil complaints, motions, and judgments.
U.S. DOJ Indictment — Internet Research Agency
The February 2018 grand jury indictment of 13 Russian nationals and 3 entities including the Internet Research Agency. The primary legal document establishing the facts of Russia's social media interference operation in the 2016 U.S. election.
Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Active Measures
The bipartisan U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on Russian active measures campaigns targeting the 2016 election. Documents the Internet Research Agency's operations in detail.
FBI IC3 PSA — BADBOX 2.0 Warning (June 2025)
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center Public Service Announcement I-060525-PSA. Official U.S. government warning about the BADBOX 2.0 botnet affecting consumer devices. Includes indicators of compromise and recommended mitigations.
CISA / FBI Advisory — Foreign Influence Operations (2024)
Joint advisory from CISA and the FBI warning about foreign influence operations targeting the 2024 U.S. election, including Iranian Storm-2035 activity.
U.S. State Department — Rewards for Justice
U.S. State Department program offering rewards for information on foreign threats to national security, including malign foreign influence operations.
⚖️ Legal, democracy & accountability organizations
Lawfare
Publication focused on law and national security. Covers the legal dimensions of intelligence, cybersecurity, disinformation, platform governance, and democratic institutions.
Protect Democracy
Nonpartisan nonprofit founded by former White House lawyers to prevent the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Monitors threats to constitutional governance and publishes legal analysis of democratic backsliding.
Brennan Center for Justice
Nonpartisan law and policy institute at NYU School of Law. Focuses on voting rights, election security, campaign finance, and criminal justice.
Atlantic Council — Operation Secondary Infektion Report
Detailed investigation by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab documenting Operation Secondary Infektion — a Russian-linked influence network that used over 300 websites and platforms to spread fabricated documents across European media.
📦 BADBOX botnet research & reports
HUMAN Security — BADBOX 2.0 Report
The definitive technical investigation of BADBOX 2.0 by HUMAN Security's Satori Threat Intelligence team. Documents the four criminal groups involved, infection methods, device distribution across 222 countries, and fraud mechanisms including residential proxying and fake account creation.
Trend Micro — Lemon Group / Guerrilla Malware Report
Research presented at Black Hat Asia 2023 documenting the Lemon Group criminal operation and their Guerrilla malware embedded in approximately 8.9 million Android devices across 180 countries.
Malwarebytes — T95 Android TV Box Analysis
The January 2023 report that first publicly documented a consumer Android TV box purchased from Amazon arriving pre-loaded with factory-installed backdoor malware.
Google vs. BADBOX 2.0 — Lawsuit Coverage (The Hacker News)
Coverage of Google's July 2025 federal lawsuit against 25 Chinese entities involved in the BADBOX 2.0 operation. Documents the four specialized criminal groups identified in the lawsuit and the revised infection count of over 10 million devices.
OpenAI — Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI by State-Affiliated Actors
OpenAI's report on its disruption of AI-assisted influence operations by state-affiliated actors including China's Spamouflage network and Iran's IUVM.
Mandiant / Google — Ghostwriter Influence Campaign Report
Mandiant research documenting the Ghostwriter influence operation (UNC1151), linked to Belarusian military intelligence. Details the operation's method of compromising journalist accounts to publish fabricated pro-Russian, anti-NATO articles under real reporters' names.
EU DisinfoLab — Operation Doppelganger Tracker
EU DisinfoLab's ongoing tracker of Operation Doppelganger, the Kremlin-linked campaign that clones legitimate news websites to publish pro-Russian content.
EU DisinfoLab — Indian Chronicles Full Report
EU DisinfoLab's landmark investigation of the Srivastava Group's 15-year influence operation involving over 260 fake news sites across 65 countries.
🔎 Document search & research tools
WikiLeaks Search
Searchable archive of leaked documents published by WikiLeaks. Covers diplomatic cables, intelligence files, corporate documents, and government communications.