They call themselves the BG Elves, which both refers to the kind-hearted characters of Scandinavian mythology and hints at a rivalry with the internet’s malicious trolls.
One of their latest efforts was helping an animal rights NGO uncover evidence that led to the March arrest of a woman and a man accused of selling videos online of hundreds of animals being tortured to death.
OSINT refers to open-source intelligence, which is information gathered with digital investigation techniques like reverse image search and geolocation.
Using OSINT, they were also able to trace the locations where the videos of cats, rabbits and guinea pigs being tortured on camera were filmed by her accomplice.
- ‘Counter-propaganda’ -
“There were about 10 of us in a chat group, we refined the concept, then put out a call for volunteers,“ Petkov told AFP about the group’s founding.
“We are not hackers, we are researchers,“ said Petkov, 37, who moved from central Bulgaria to Kyiv shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“We noticed that a (disinfo) narrative... takes some time to reach people. Our idea was to flood the space with humour and irony before the propaganda takes hold,“ said Petkov.
In March, BG Elves supported a Romanian journalist in an investigation that exposed a Russia-linked disinformation and propaganda network funded through online advertising.
In the wake of the recent arrests, Bulgaria proposed a bill in parliament, which allows for higher prison terms of up to 10 years for torturing animals.
Petya Altimirska, president of the animal welfare association CAAI, who had reached out to the Elves for help in the abuse case, has since received numerous reports of “even more serious” cases, adding that the cyber sleuths are already “on it”.
While the group was praised for exposing the animal abuse, it has also faced criticism and numerous threats for its provocative approach and alleged political bias.
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