Title: Turning OSINV Inward: Investigating Datafication and AI Misuse
Abstract: Open-source investigative methods (OSINV) have become central to journalism, enabling reporting from conflict zones, foreign contexts, and disaster areas through the analysis of social media footage, satellite imagery, and other digital traces. These from above techniques have expanded journalism’s watchdog capacity by providing forms of evidence and transparency otherwise inaccessible on the ground. This talk argues that OSINV can also serve as a critical lens turned inward, illuminating the infrastructures, dynamics, and opacities of datafication itself. Beyond documenting distant events, OSINV can help investigate mis- and disinformation operations, AI-driven propaganda, “AI slop,” and the use of generative AI for harassment and hate speech. How can OSINV be mobilized by journalism to scrutinize the most contentious uses of digital and AI technologies, and to hold both platforms and perpetrators accountable? And crucially, what contributions can journa
Biography: Dr. Philip Di Salvo is a senior researcher and lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland. His primary research interests include investigative journalism, internet surveillance, the intersection of journalism and hacking, and black box technologies. Previously, he served as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) from 2021 to 2022. From 2012 to 2021, he held various research and teaching roles at the Institute of Media and Journalism, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). In the summer of 2024, Philip was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Between 2018 and 2020, he also taught as a Lecturer at NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy. Philip earned his PhD in Communication Sciences from USI in the summer of 2018, with a dissertation focusing on the adoption of encrypted whistleblowing platforms in journalism. As a freelance journalist, Philip has contributed to publications such as Wired, Motherboard/Vice, Esquire and RSI, the Swiss-Italian public broadcaster, covering the societal impacts of technology. Additionally, he hosts a monthly technology-focused radio show for Milan-based Radio Raheem. Philip is the author of two books: “Leaks. Whistleblowing e hacking nell’età senza segreti” (LUISS University Press, Rome, 2019) and “Digital Whistleblowing Platforms in Journalism. Encrypting Leaks” (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2020). He also serves on the board of DIG Festival, an international investigative journalism event held in Italy.
