Show & Tell from Indicator

Indicator Media Inc.
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Show & Tell from Indicator takes you inside digital investigations as leading journalists, OSINT investigators, threat analysts, and researchers walk through real cases they've cracked. Each episode features a recognized figure in the OSINT, digital investigations, or trust & safety community. They don't just tell us what they did—they show us. We see their browser extensions in action, watch them navigate tools under pressure, and learn how they think through dead ends and breakthroughs. Hosted by Indicator cofounders and veteran digital investigators Alexios Mantzarlis and Craig Silverman, Show & Tell asks the questions that uncover not just what investigators did, but how and why it worked.

Episodes

  1. MAR 2

    Inside The Tools & Techniques That Exposed Facebook Transit Scams And TikTok's Polarization Industry

    In this episode of Show & Tell, hosts Craig Silverman and Alexios Mantzarlis from Indicator talk with Clara Jiménez Cruz, co-founder and CEO of Maldita.es, a Spanish nonprofit news organization that uses fact-checking, data journalism, and OSINT to expose disinformation and digital deception. Clara gave a hands-on look at three investigations that exposed how platform systems — not just bad actors — enable scams, monetized deception, and child exploitation. What You'll Learn: -The Transport Scam Network: How Maldita identified 1,075 Facebook pages impersonating public transit authorities across more than 60 countries. She showed the methodology (Facebook page transparency, ad library domain lookups, and DNS data) that scaled a tip into a global database. -TikTok's Polarization Industry: How hundreds of accounts used polarizing AI-generated political content to take advantage of TikTok's creator monetization program. -CSAM on TikTok: How Maldita found more than 5,200 AI-generated videos and 3,600 videos of real minors being sexualized on the platform. Clara revealed how TikTok's automated moderation failed to act on their reports, leading to a Digital Services Act enforcement investigation and a referral to Spanish prosecutors. Building Data Where There Is None: How manual spreadsheet annotation of Facebook page IDs and TikTok account IDs lets investigators track accounts that change names, measure coordinated creation times, and build findings that hold up to scrutiny. Working the Comments: Why looking at comment sections — not just content — is what cracked open the CSAM-to-Telegram pipeline. About Clara Jiménez Cruz: Clara is co-founder and CEO of Maldita.es, a Spanish foundation and nonprofit news organization she co-founded with Julio Montes Moreno and grew into a powerhouse digital investigative outlet. Links Referenced in Episode: -Maldita.es transport scam investigation: https://maldita.es/investigaciones/20250716/transport-scam-network-international-facebook/ -Maldita.es TikTok polarization investigation: https://maldita.es/investigaciones/20260126/protests-ai-tiktok-money-polarization/ -Maldita.es CSAM/TikTok investigation: https://maldita.es/investigaciones/20251211/predators-tiktok-goldmine-pedophiles/ -MyOSINT Training free bookmarklets: https://tools.myosint.training/ Subscribe & Follow Indicator: Free newsletter: https://indicator.media/ Social: https://bsky.app/profile/indicator.media Email us: editorial@indicator.media Hit subscribe to never miss an episode!

    44 min

  2. FEB 2

    Using Internal Docs, Burner Accounts and Ad Library Research to Expose Meta's Scam Ad Business

    In this episode of Show & Tell, hosts Craig Silverman and Alexios Mantzarlis sit down with Jeff Horwitz, investigative reporter at Reuters. Jeff shares how he showed that Meta has earned billions of dollars from online scam ads—and how he used the company’s own ad system to prove his point. Jeff details how he combines leaked internal documents with hands-on experiments, including running his own "scam" ads to see how Meta’s AI tools would react. You’ll hear how Meta’s generative AI didn't just approve his deceptive ads—it offered suggestions to make them even sleazier. What You'll Learn: His Approach: How Jeff uses document analysis, quantification methods, burner accounts, and internal sources to uncover stories.The Scam Ad Experiment: Jeff explains how he partnered with Meta's own "trusted" ad agencies in China to run ads that explicitly violated platform rules.AI-Enhanced Deception: Learn how Meta’s LLMs suggested high-pressure copy like "guaranteed profit" and "tired of living paycheck to paycheck" to improve scam performance.The "Black Box" Problem: Why even internal Meta staffers often rely on setting up "clean" test accounts to understand what their own algorithms are doing.Sourcing via LinkedIn: Jeff shares his "old school" but effective outreach tactics using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find sources within big tech. About Jeff Horwitz: Before joining Reuters, Jeff covered Meta for The Wall Street Journal where he broke major stories on child exploitation on the platform, Instagram's negative impact on teen mental health, facilitation of human trafficking, and the amplification of political violence. His Facebook Files investigation used internal Meta documents to expose systemic issues across the company's platforms. Episode Highlights: [1:46] Introduction to Jeff Horwitz and his investigative work[4:47] How Jeff started investigating Meta's ad scam problem[7:37] The power of documents in investigative journalism[37:25] Meta's response to the scam ad reporting[39:30] Lightning round: Jeff's digital tools and investigative methods

    44 min
  • 2 Episodes

About

Show & Tell from Indicator takes you inside digital investigations as leading journalists, OSINT investigators, threat analysts, and researchers walk through real cases they've cracked. Each episode features a recognized figure in the OSINT, digital investigations, or trust & safety community. They don't just tell us what they did—they show us. We see their browser extensions in action, watch them navigate tools under pressure, and learn how they think through dead ends and breakthroughs. Hosted by Indicator cofounders and veteran digital investigators Alexios Mantzarlis and Craig Silverman, Show & Tell asks the questions that uncover not just what investigators did, but how and why it worked.

Information

  • Creator
    Indicator Media Inc.
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Indicator Media Inc.
  • Show Website
    Show & Tell from Indicator

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