Bellingcat – Aram Shabanian: “…Livestreams can be static (i.e. stationary CCTV cameras, which aren’t set up to capture specific events) or active (done by individuals deliberately at the scene of important events and only for a short duration to capture said events). This article covers both, as both are of incredible use to open source researchers. Today, livestreams of tragedies are commonplace, as is their use by analysts and conflict monitors…The ongoing war in Gaza has been different. So far, Israel’s efforts to cut off power and restrict access to the territory have hampered the utility of cameras within the Gaza Strip. Thus, we have mostly been restricted to cameras put in place by news outlets just outside its borders. Nevertheless, these livestreams can be an essential source of footage for open source researchers. Through years of watching and searching, I now subscribe to over 1,600 livestreams on YouTube. I will explain below how to find some of these sources and provide useful examples for monitoring events in Gaza…All told livestreaming video can provide a fuller view of a situation to a researcher as it takes place in real-time. However, one must bear in mind the bias of the camera. That is to say: video sources are not always impartial. A well-placed news camera in the rowdiest part of a protest crowd, aimed upward from down low, may make a crowd look much larger and more violent than the average protester actually is. The camera also provides only one, often fixed view of a situation. It should not be considered the end-all, be-all of open source research. But live cameras have allowed me, and many others like me, to glimpse into worlds we never would have seen otherwise.”