OSINT Archives

Social Media & Behavior Analysis

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One of the most fascinating aspects of social media for me has always been the psychological angle or behavioral science to it all. Behavioral science is a field that analyses human behavior. It focuses on observing, describing, explaining, predicting, and modifying behavior through systematic observation and manipulation of environmental variables. This can be applied to social media in various ways. Marketers have been doing it for years~ profiling users of social media to better advertise their products or services. In fact, social media can even be used to better understand population dietary behaviors. The review identified 34 studies involving social media analysis (SMA). They took a deep dive on alcohol consumption, dieting and eating away from home behaviors. Twitter was predominant with data sets in tens of millions.

This is nothing new for OSINT researchers, Investigative Journalists, Law Enforcement, and Private Investigators. We have learned just how much you can discover through various platforms from finding a missing child to uncovering financial fraud and everything in between.

We like to start off by examining the age of the person and which platforms they are more likely to be on.

Demographics of Platforms: AGE

The recent data from Pew Research may suggest we should pay closer attention to certain social media platforms based on age. YouTube and Facebook still remain the top two most used platforms across all demographics. This data is a good place to start and may help to uncover different usernames that can later be used to identify other platforms.

Understanding User Behavior

Behavior analysis can be used to study how individuals interact with social media platforms. Researchers can observe and analyze user behavior patterns, such as the frequency of posting, types of content shared, and interactions with others (e.g., likes, comments, shares). How much influence does the user have? Which friends or followers seem to interact with the user the most? In what capacity?

Clues in a Post

Location: Posts may contain information about a person’s location, such as check-ins or geotags, which can be used to verify alibis or track movements.
Relationships: Posts may reveal a person’s relationships with others, such as friends, family, or acquaintances, which can be used to identify potential suspects or witnesses.
Activities: Posts may provide information about a person’s activities, such as hobbies, interests, or daily routines, which can be used to establish patterns of behavior or gather evidence of illegal activities.
Emotions: Posts may reveal a person’s emotions, such as anger, sadness, or happiness, which can be used to assess their mental state and motivations.
Communications: Posts may contain messages, comments, or other communications with others, which can be used to identify potential witnesses or suspects, and to gather evidence of criminal activities.

Body Language

Technically, body language refers to the nonverbal signals that we convey through our physical movements and gestures, which are typically seen in person. However, in social media videos, you can still convey nonverbal cues through your facial expressions, tone of voice, and posture.

For example, facial expressions can show enthusiasm or sadness, change the tone of your voice will convey different emotions, and gestures may be used to emphasize certain points. Voice inflections can be a sign of stress or anxiety.

Studying a social media post’s background can be very telling as well. For example, a cluttered or messy background may communicate disorganization or lack of attention to detail, while a professional or clean background may communicate professionalism and attention to detail.

Social media posts can provide valuable clues in an investigation, as they can reveal a person’s thoughts, emotions, activities, and connections with others.

There are and will continue to be a wide range of reasons to pay close attention to social media for an investigation of any kind.

Cyberstalking & Desensitized Americans in 2023

Imagine you are taking a once in a lifetime style vacation, visiting the most amazing places, eating the best food at highly rated restaurants, and experiencing the spectacular view from your hotel room window. How much of this would you feel led to share on social media? And of that, how many of the posts would you geotag with your location? We are currently living in a world full of 8 billion people, and 4.9 billion of those people engage in social media. That is over half of the entire world population, sharing information about their lives on the internet. There is a large majority of people who engage in social media who do so privately with the exception of close friends and family. You then have the other side of the coin with people who share their social media experience with all 4.9 billion people on social media. This is where the danger of social media truly lives, cyberstalking.

Cyberstalking

It has been reported that each year there are an estimated 850,000 adults in the United States who are victims of cyberstalking. This is an issue that is unfortunately not discussed nearly as much as it should be, especially with the younger generations.

Take the story of TikTok star Ava Majury. In 2020, 13 year old Ava had attracted over 1 million followers to her social media accounts by sharing videos of herself doing dances and lip synching to popular music. Ava began receiving messages from an 18 year old boy named Justin, who she assumed was just another one of her fans. Justin, through social media, was able to locate friends and classmates of Ava’s who he paid in exchange for photos of her and her cell phone number. It was clear that Ava had developed a Cyberstalker and she blocked him through all her social media. Still, Justin was able to connect with people through social media to discover where she lived and show up to her house armed with a shotgun. Ava’s father, a retired police lieutenant, ordered him to leave their property and drop his weapon. Justin did not listen and his intent on causing the family harm was made clear, and he was fatally shot by Ava’s father. Ava continues to share content online publicly with the support of her parents.

Social Media Influencers

Stories like Ava’s are more common than you think. In September of 2018 there was a story reported of a 21 year old man who was arrested for breaking into a home and bedroom of a 13 year old girl whose address he had found by studying her posts on social media. Take Tabitha Swatosh, better known as the “big sister” of the internet. Tabitha has made her fame through TikTok but also through YouTube as she posts videos of her lip syncing to different sounds as well as ‘vlogging’ her everyday life. She has over 13 million followers on her TikTok account, and has been a part of the Hype House since 2022.

You may wonder what the Hype House is. Well, the Hype House is a content creator collective and an actual physical rental mansion in Los Angeles, California. The whole point of having this home is for the members of this tight knit club to collaborate with each other and brands making viral content for the internet. It was created by (at the time) 17 year old TikTok star Lil Huddy and 21 year old YouTube star Thomas Petrou. Over the years they have had a multitude of members including some of the more recognizable Charlie and Dixie D’Amelio.

So how does this fit into cyberstalking? Well, Hype House member Tabitha Swatosh has been very open about the countless stalkers she has obtained throughout her social media journey. The most recent being in December of 2022, Tabitha posted to TikTok sharing that she has to move for the 3rd time in one year due to a stalker coming to the door of her apartment. Despite Tabitha’s history with stalkers, she continues to share videos on her TikTok showing parts of the outside of her new apartment building as well as distinguishable features of the inside. The content that she has shared about her most recent stalkers has combined views of over 8 million. So now we ask the question, is society romanticizing cyberstalking?

Social Media Oversharing

On your journey through social media you can find content of people stalking their current love interests on social media, learning things about them that they shouldn’t really know based on their in person conversations. You have instances like the current pop culture drama between Hailey Beiber and Selena Gomez, where society is deep diving into the archives of social media to prove a point about these two celebrities saying they’re ‘investigating’ when really it could be considered a form of cyberstalking.

Finally, taking a look at one of the most popular Netflix shows currently streaming called You. This show follows the lead character Joe Goldberg who is a serial stalker, and it is narrated from his point of view. Viewers are taken through a journey as Joe stalks people online, in person, and kills people all under the illusion of him having to do these things to protect the people he loves… Society LOVES this character, choosing to see his better qualities and ignore the bad.

Are we, as a society, becoming desensitized to the risks of publicly oversharing on social media? It is very possible to have a safe online presence, but the current ‘influencers’ are pushing the narrative that to have a multitude of followers and viral videos, you have to share the private details of your life publicly. Is this really the example we want to set for the youth of America? Are we encouraging them to share private details of themselves online just for the sake of chasing clout? No matter what the circumstances? It sure seems as a society we need to be much more aware of what we post publicly.

TikTok & the Gabby Petito Case

Gabby Petito, a young and beautiful Social Media Influencer, went on one travel adventure after another with fiancé Brian Laundrie. And thens suddenly, it all took a very dark turn. With Gabby Petito’s potential remains being recently identified in Wyoming, and fiancé Brian Laundrie still missing, this case has captivated the hearts of many across the country.

Questions as to why this happened to her and if it all could have been prevented are on the minds of many. If you search #gabbypetito through TikTok right now you will find more than 480 million people have viewed the videos associated with the hashtag. From TikTok influencers, to witnesses, real time video footage is being posted piecing together the evidence.

How TikTok Helped

Taking a closer look at the videos associated with #gabbypetito, I stumbled upon Miranda Baker’s TikTok channel, a key witness associated with the investigation. Miranda and her boyfriend picked up Brian Laundrie who was hitchhiking around the time of Gabby’s disappearance. She gave a statement to the FBI but afterwards documented her interactions with Brian through her TikTok account. Every video she posted goes into details about Brian, their location, and interaction. Every video has gone viral.

Another video created by Alyssa Rose, shows a YouTube video the couple had posted on one of their adventures. She pauses the YouTube video at marker 6:40, to focus in on a book that Brain Laundrie was reading in a hammock. As she zooms in, she discusses the book he was reading which is “The Annihilation”. This book is about groups of people exploring uncharted terrain that go missing. This particular book series follows four women.

A third video was from Riley Lively, a mom living in New Orleans. She took to her TikTok account and stated in the post, “Putting some of my investigation skills to good use!” In this video she discusses how through sleuthing through an app called “All Trails” she found Gabby Petito’s public account. This app allows you to search and follow other individuals and their hiking trails from around the world. Through this account Riley discovered all of the trails Gabby had saved. She begins to show the lists that Gabby had saved in her account. Many of these hiking trails saved could have been potential spots of where was had gone missing.

Critical Thinking

In OSINT we are taught about the techniques behind finding key pieces of data or evidence that is online. What isn’t always taught? How to apply critical thinking online. Growing your critical thinking skills is just as important in finding key information. Each one of these women took to TikTok and applied their critical thinking skills, piecing together social media content to an ongoing investigation.

The Takeaway

Each of the viral videos above teach us all something valuable! Culture, personality, details, and analysis. Miranda met with the FBI and provided a statement. She also was continuously working with the FBI while creating her video content. My mind immediately goes to the details she is discussing in each post, how she is processing what she witnessed in each video, and what are others saying about the content she is posting in the comments. Are there any additional witnesses there? Any other clues?

Alyssa Rose shared Gabby Petito’s Youtube video. Someone could have easily watched that video and not notice Brian in the hammock reading a book. She took the time to analyze a video that could have easily gone over the heads of many. The online personality of your subject matters. This is a great example of a small piece of information, showing us an insight to Brian Laundrie and his interest.

Riley Liley pieced together Gabby being an influencer, possibly having an account with the ever popular All Trails App and was right. She then was able to view Gabby’s public online account trail lists.

Leave no stone unturned. Think about their interests. If they have a large social media presence, there’s a chance they have apps they are tied to involving their interests.

When we think of social media research, or social media listening, culture is not something that immediately comes to mind. It is only when we begin to dig deeper and identify what our search parameters are, that we begin to understand the role culture plays. TikTok is a culture phenomenon that continues to evolve. It took on an entirely new form over the past two weeks with this case and will continue to do so.

Facial Recognition – Online Research

Facial recognition is something that you may want to zero in on before you begin any type of reverse image searching. If you just want to see if the photo itself is being used anywhere else online, then leaving the photo as is works well. However, what if you have a photo of a person but can’t identify the person? In that case, you may want to search a bit differently.

Google Reverse Image Search

Google doesn’t really focus all that much on the facial recognition aspect of a photo. Instead, it is geared more to searching content. That means it takes into consideration what the photo is about. Is it a photo of a person eating at a restaurant? You may get a large number of results showing you a photo of a person who looks similar, eating at a restaurant.

It doesn’t focus as much on the facial recognition aspect.

One work around to this is to crop your photo before searching through Google Image. Take out all the background and just focus on the face of the person if possible.

Yandex

Yandex’s image search is far superior for facial recognition. I highly recommend using it. Take a look at the difference between searches. I use a standard head shot in all my marketing online. It should come up in a Google reverse image search without any problem. However, it doesn’t.

Look at how much more you information you get from Yandex than from a basic Google Image Search. While there are photo selections offered to the right, Yandex allows you to further crop an area of the photo. This allows you to try the search in more than one way.

Notice also how it offers you sites containing information about where the image is online. It highlights several sites where this exact photo is being used.

Tin Eye

Tin Eye is used all the time in investigations. For this particular exercise, it did not fair as well as the others, however. The result I received from a basic search was a website that is not even up and running anymore.

The Online Personality of Your Subject

Is the online personality of a person different from their in person personality? I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called, “Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.” The docuseries is about a Canadian college student, Elisa Lam, who was a guest of the hotel in 2013. She disappeared and was missing for a period of time around some very unusual circumstances. I won’t tell you anymore, in case you want to watch it.

Her Tumblr account was an open book. Tumblr is a social media platform that was very popular during this time frame. Elisa Lam used it like a diary and in the documentary it is explained in detail what was obtained from the scrubbing of that open source information (OSINT). Her personality came through loud and clear through analyzing her social media posts.

Online Personality

When it comes to pulling online activity from social media, blogs, forums, etc. on your person of interest, personality plays an important role. Everyone in the investigation’s field knows that a person who is narcissistic for example, will provide you with a treasure of information online. In some cases, perhaps even more than you might need.

But what about all those people in between? People approach social media differently and there are many factors to be considered.

Two Major Personality Differences

One would think that an introvert would be non-social but that is not necessarily true. Consider some actors or comedians. Most seem like extraverts by the way they conduct themselves publicly. However, when interviewed, many of them say they are more introverted.

What are some common traits of Introverts?

Introverts in social media care about their privacy.
They tend to only accept friend requests from people they know.
They really don’t care about the number of “likes”.
Most likely unaware of friend requests.
Will unfollow or delete you.

What are some common traits of extraverts?

Extraverts don’t worry about their privacy.
They are more inclined to accept invitations from people they don’t know.
Extraverts care very much about the “likes” & shares.
They do pay attention to friend requests.
Most will keep all of their connections close.

From a psychology point of view we can take a look at “Introvert vs. Extrovert: A Look at the Spectrum and Psychology. The article points out the following. “How extroverted we are can have a huge bearing on our day-to-day life across a multitude of contexts and it’s important to note that there’s no ‘better’ level of extroversion/introversion – both ends of the spectrum have their advantages and disadvantages but by understanding where we fall on the scale we can address areas in which we’re perhaps lacking.”

Personality predicts what people do on social media.

A large body of research on social media use and personality has focused on the Big 5 personality traits, the most widely accepted trait theory. When people are asked to rate how much different traits characterize them, those traits cluster into five groups:

Extraversion: Sociability and feeling energized by interactions with others
Agreeableness: Warmth, cooperativeness, and a desire to get along with others
Conscientiousness: Being practical, organized, and hard-working
Openness: Creativity, intellectualism, and openness to new experiences
Neuroticism: Moodiness and anxiety

Knowing and understanding some of this may be of help in your next investigation. It is well worth it to take a look at your subject’s online activity to reveal glimpses into their personality.