Sedition Hunters is an online community of open-source intelligence investigators working to identify individuals who took part in the January 6, 2021, United States Capitol attack.[1][2][3] They examine still photos and video footage from publicly available sources, social media sites like Twitter and Parler, video platforms, and other social media and submit that research to the FBI in the form of a tip.[4][5]

The Sedition Hunters community has created and deployed a number of advanced tools to help study the Jan6 riot. Among the earliest was an interactive map,[6][7] showing videos recorded of the event that had embedded GPS location tags. Later, the community created a public facial recognition database[8] to quickly find suspects in terabytes of footage.

The FBI has relied on groups like the Sedition Hunters due to the large number of suspects, estimated at 2,000.[9][10][11][12]

References edit

  1. ^ Morrison, Sara (January 6, 2022). "To catch an insurrectionist". Vox. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  2. ^ "Online community of so-called 'Sedition Hunters' work to identify the January 6 rioters". CBS News. January 6, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  3. ^ Hutton, Alice (June 7, 2021). "Online 'sedition hunters' search for remaining US Capitol rioters, new report claims". The Independent. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  4. ^ Martínez, A; Yousef, Odette (January 5, 2022). "Amateur sleuths help to identify hundreds of suspected Jan. 6 rioters". Morning Edition. NPR. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  5. ^ Reilly, Ryan J. (2023). Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System. PublicAffairs (published October 17, 2023). ISBN 978-1541701809.
  6. ^ Campbell, Ian Carlos (January 15, 2021). "A Parler archive is being converted into an interactive map of the Capitol building attack". The Verge. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  7. ^ Koebler, Jason; Makuch, Ben (January 13, 2021). "Developer Makes Interactive Map of Parler Videos From Capitol Hill Riots". Vice. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  8. ^ Rogalski, Jeremy (February 7, 2021). "Interactive map tracks videos recorded during Capitol riot". KHOU. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  9. ^ Mak, Tim (August 18, 2021). "The FBI Keeps Using Clues From Volunteer Sleuths To Find The Jan. 6 Capitol Rioters". All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  10. ^ Feuer, Alan (January 5, 2022). "Prosecutors Move Quickly on Jan. 6 Cases, but One Big Question Remains". The New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  11. ^ Richer, Alanna Durkin; Kunzelman, Michael (July 6, 2021). "Hunt for Capitol attackers still on 6 months after Jan. 6". The Detroit News. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  12. ^ Reilly, Ryan J. (January 5, 2022). "The FBI's Secret Weapon In The Capitol Attack Manhunt". HuffPost. Archived from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.

External links edit