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There is a common pessimistic view of the relationship between citizens and the internet.

It casts us as pawns in the game run by giant tech companies stumbling blindly in a fog of misinformation or mindlessly self-radicalising on social media. But there's a more optimistic view,

that the technology empowers us, that it has made the world more transparent that in this decentralized panopticon bands of activists can hold the once untouchable powers to account.

Maybe we're not prisoners in the matrix, but living through a golden age of citizen power.

I'm Raphael Bear. This is the bunker, the no-nonsense news podcast.

And in this episode, we're talking

about open-source intelligence, OSINT. It's a conversation that can't be had without mention

of Bellingat, the organisation that powered the field, and its founder and convener, Elliot Higgins.

Happily, Elliot is with me in the bunker. Hello, Elliot. Hi, thanks for having me on.

That's a pleasure.

Now, let's just start with that probably ludicrous and false dichotomy that I set up in the intro there.

I've read things that you've written about this subject that are quite optimistic,

and I encounter a lot the very bleak, pessimistic view of where we are. So where is your mood

at this very moment right now on the spectrum between this is a golden age of opportunity and

transparency or we're plunging into a dystopian matrix? I kind of like to have my cake and eat

it by saying kind of both at the same time.

...