Richard Irvine-Brown

Richard Irvine-Brown

@richib.bsky.social

Portfolio: https://www.clippings.me/users/richardirvinebrown Journo. BBC Verify. Digital investigative journalism since 2014, cars/money data before, BBC Sport 2007-2011.

6.1K followers740 following2.5K posts

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

BBC Global Affairs Correspondent Richard Kagoe and I were on World Service radio explaining the wider picture of the Abyei attacks and the OSinv of Amiet/al-Na’am which killed 153 people. It’s an eight-minute clip so I can’t put it on here. But it’s up on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/posts/richar...

linkedin.comAs well as helping investigate what happened at Amiet / al Na'am market in Abyei, on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, and where 153 people were reported killed, I spoke to BBC Outside Source o...As well as helping investigate what happened at Amiet / al Na'am market in Abyei, on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, and where 153 people were reported killed, I spoke to BBC Outside Source on Wo...
Richard Irvine-Brown@richib.bsky.social

Hundreds killed in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan. For all the clever skills of verification work, local knowledge is key, so it's an honour to work with our team in Nairobi on this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Some open-source pointers to follow.

bbc.co.ukSudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources sayA truck carrying people to a funeral and a market alleged to be supplying fuel to the RSF were targeted.

Richard Irvine-Brown reposted

Mark Savage
@mrdiscopop.bsky.social

Last night’s Mercury Prize was our last ever red carpet with ace producer Steven Wright, who’s leaving the BBC next month. He has saved my bacon, and turned my coal into diamonds, more times than I care to mention. The backroom guys don’t get nearly enough credit - but he’s the best.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Hundreds killed in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan. For all the clever skills of verification work, local knowledge is key, so it's an honour to work with our team in Nairobi on this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Some open-source pointers to follow.

bbc.co.ukSudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources sayA truck carrying people to a funeral and a market alleged to be supplying fuel to the RSF were targeted.
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Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

That was yesterday. If you follow it back to the source you'll get to Amiet. Looking on another public Nasa service, Firms, you can see heat anomalies, day by day, around the world. When they are clustered like this, as they were yesterday at Amiet, it's a strong indicator of a large fire.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

And this was overnight, showing a heat anomaly still registering in Amiet, where saw the cluster ~12 hours before. Go, see for yourselves what you can see on Nasa Worldview and Nasa Firms. Or try Copernicus!

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Hundreds killed in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan. For all the clever skills of verification work, local knowledge is key, so it's an honour to work with our team in Nairobi on this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Some open-source pointers to follow.

bbc.co.ukSudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources sayA truck carrying people to a funeral and a market alleged to be supplying fuel to the RSF were targeted.
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

First, with a big fire, like the one at Amiet fuel market, or a Saudi or Russian oil refinery, for instance, satellites will be key. Nasa and Copernicus have near-daily low-res images available to all. Here's Nasa Worldview for the Abyei region. The thick, dark shape under the clouds is smoke.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Work on tracking US-sanctioned Iranian-linked tankers getting a re-up for today's piece on oil supply levels rising: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Written by @thomascopeland.bsky.social

bbc.co.ukThree reasons Middle East oil is nearly back to pre-Iran war levelsExperts say US military assistance, using shuttle tankers and pipelines bypassing the Strait of Hormuz mean exports have rebounded.
Richard Irvine-Brown@richib.bsky.social

Iranian tankers, US-sanctioned, are building up off the coast of Sri Lanka. @emmapengelly.bsky.social and I traced them for the BBC Sinhala-language team. www.bbc.com/sinhala/arti...

bbc.com'ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආසන්න මුහුදේ ඇමෙරිකානු සම්බාධක පැනවූ ඉරාන නෞකා 21ක්' - BBC නිරීක්ෂණයකින් හෙළිවේ - BBC News සිංහල“ස්වෛරී රාජ්‍යයක් විදිහටත්, ජාත්‍යන්තර සාගර සම්මුතියට අත්සන් කරලා රටක් හැටියටත් මෙතැනදී ප්‍රශ්නය එන්න හැකියාව තියෙනවා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට. ස්වෛරී රාජ්‍යයක් හැටියට යුදමය නොවන තත්ත්වයකදී ඕනෑම රටකට සහය දෙන්න ශ්...

Richard Irvine-Brown reposted

Joe Tidy BBC News
@joetidy.bsky.social

Bizarre update/ twist in the FBI hack case. The hackers - Shiny Hunters - are now saying that they won't publish the stolen data on their darknet site and actually 'never intended to'. They sent me and other reporters this ridiculous statement saying the media 'took the story out of context'.

Richard Irvine-Brown reposted

Joe Tidy BBC News
@joetidy.bsky.social

Exclusive: Special agents' blood and urine test results stolen in FBI hack. Cyber-criminals who hacked the FBI say they have extremely sensitive medical data for thousands of its special agents. BBC News has seen samples of the stolen "fitness-for-work" medical examinations, which...

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

BRENTFORD, the numbers. End the weekend unbeaten. 4th in the Prem 3rd highest scorers 4 wins from 7 games this season 2 tricky away cup ties overcome 18 goals scored 11 different scorers Not bad for the 13th stop for the 267 from Hammersmith to Hounslow.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Iranian tankers, US-sanctioned, are building up off the coast of Sri Lanka. @emmapengelly.bsky.social and I traced them for the BBC Sinhala-language team. www.bbc.com/sinhala/arti...

bbc.com'ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආසන්න මුහුදේ ඇමෙරිකානු සම්බාධක පැනවූ ඉරාන නෞකා 21ක්' - BBC නිරීක්ෂණයකින් හෙළිවේ - BBC News සිංහල“ස්වෛරී රාජ්‍යයක් විදිහටත්, ජාත්‍යන්තර සාගර සම්මුතියට අත්සන් කරලා රටක් හැටියටත් මෙතැනදී ප්‍රශ්නය එන්න හැකියාව තියෙනවා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට. ස්වෛරී රාජ්‍යයක් හැටියට යුදමය නොවන තත්ත්වයකදී ඕනෑම රටකට සහය දෙන්න ශ්...

Richard Irvine-Brown reposted

Joe Tidy BBC News
@joetidy.bsky.social

I started writing this BBC InDepth feature on Tuesday. Then the story evolved quite significantly. Writing it became a live fire situation as more and more news came in. AI safety has never been more pressing and I have tried to explain it all here. Ahttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74edv9887eo

bbc.co.ukCan humans stay in control of AI?AI agents went on an uncontrolled hacking spree, leaving some in the industry worried
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

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Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Noise residuals (cf. the face to the rest of the photo): The granular detailing of the face in the close-up pic is the same level as the rest of the photo. The detailing of the face in the other pic is above the background, but the background is more washed-out, possibly due to lighting.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

So, well done, this is the end. The pics appear not to be gen-AI. At first glance, there are warnings of other digital manipulation (is photoshopping a brand name?). However, every test shows these warnings are only warnings, not proof. But please try these things for yourself!

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Testing the hands and face for things like colour and edging, they appear in the same ballpark. Or: Wherever the hands and face came from is probably the same source, and there's no evidence of AI doing anything.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Boundary test: Is there speckling all around the face, caused by it being digitally imported from somewhere else? There's a little at the sides, against the stark walls, but not under the chin where it meets the neck. Or: No abrupt noise discontinuity.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

MeVer, an image verification site, flagged Maduro's face being photoshopped in. For starters, we can at least say AI didn't do this. Let's put them through Forensically, a hands-on verification site with a range of tools...

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

The pics have consistent lighting, shadow and pixel resolution between the face and the rest of the picture, so this may be MeVer detecting Maduro's face is unlike anything else in the grey/lined photos. Essentially, it's the most complicated part of the pictures.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Whatever AI detector you use, and you should use them, use a few. You can't use too many. Google, TikTok, Meta, OpenAI and others are all trialling tools anybody may use. These Maduro pictures were run through six detection engines, all came back as no AI generation detected.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

We can, however, show digital tampering such as local processing / manipulation is unlikely, by performing a masked-glyph test. Basically, pretend the stamp isn't there and compare the pixels around the area. The changes in pixel busyness can be explained by the difference in the underlying photo.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Both photos have the same luminance and chrominance, and are both progressive JPEGs. Whatever else, these two photos went through very similar final encoding processes. (Which wouldn't be apparent in standard gen-AI, unless prompted to make two images look like JPEGs with the same encoding.)

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

First, we can discount the idea the the timestamp from one has been overlaid on the other. We can be confident these are not the same raster object (digital image arranged in a grid). One is 335x53px, the other is 315x51px.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Don't take 25 June as definite. The date could be overlaid at any point. The camera's settings could be off. (We've all had cameras with mad date settings we haven't fixed, right?) We can't tell from meta data as social media platforms overwrite or erase data in different ways.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

However, magnifying the date/time stamp shows they appear inconsistently applied. Note the different degrees of speckling around the numbers. If these were applied in the same way, we'd expect them to have the same level of noise around them.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

View full thread
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

The time/date display is from a DVR/DSLR (or mocked up to be). They display the same time to the minute. This suggests the images were taken at the same time, but the background colour looks different.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

But they are the same background. We can tell from the faded right-angled line drawn in black. The colour change could be from different lighting, particularly if one photo was taken with a flash, the other wasn't.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Were pictures of ex-president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro in prison were real or AI-generated? There was some debate last weekend. We didn't find any AI generation, but there is enough about the images to test for other digital forgery. Here's a how-to for anybody to try. THREAD...

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Check for consistent social media use of the images: There was! The copies used for AI detection were from X (~64kb each), but the copies above are from Telegram, in higher quality (~100kb each) to use for digital manipulation tests. The pics also appeared on Maduro's FB and TT pages.

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

900 dead in Gaza this year; 1,300 since the ceasefire. @emmapengelly.bsky.social presenting our work. With verification also by @paulybrown.bsky.social and @benedictgarman.com.

Richard Irvine-Brown@richib.bsky.social

Drawn from dozens of verified incidents, figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, and statements from the IDF. @emmapengelly.bsky.social's work, with me. Help from @benedictgarman.com and @paulybrown.bsky.social. Overseen by @biancabritton.bsky.social. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukMore than 900 killed in Gaza this year despite ceasefire, Hamas-run health ministry saysThe ministry says the total number of people killed in the Strip since 10 October is now more than 1,300, including 301 children.
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Drawn from dozens of verified incidents, figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health, and statements from the IDF. @emmapengelly.bsky.social's work, with me. Help from @benedictgarman.com and @paulybrown.bsky.social. Overseen by @biancabritton.bsky.social. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukMore than 900 killed in Gaza this year despite ceasefire, Hamas-run health ministry saysThe ministry says the total number of people killed in the Strip since 10 October is now more than 1,300, including 301 children.
Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

10 acts you’ve seen as support acts: Comeback Kid The Descendents Money Mark Tryptikon Built To Spill DJ Shadow A Wilhelm Scream Soundgarden Faith No More Grant Hart

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Richard Irvine-Brown reposted

Bianca Britton
@biancabritton.bsky.social

🧵 BBC Verify spent this week investigating the floods that devastated the Nepal-Tibet border. We verified more than 30 videos, used satellite imagery and CCTV to trace the path of the floodwaters, and investigated what caused it Here’s some of our work from the past few days:

Richard Irvine-Brown
@richib.bsky.social

Rocky Horror and Jolene are huge memories for me. So was the Winnie the Pooh cartoon, Transformers, Gremlins and Predator. Peter Cullen’s voice of Eeyore, Ironhide and Optimus Prime, plus his noises for some of my favourite monsters will always be with us. Legend. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.ukPeter Cullen: Optimus Prime and Eeyore voice actor diesCullen voiced the heroic Optimus Prime in the Transformers TV series and then the Hollywood films.