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Yue Stella Yu realized something wasn\u2019t right in Michigan\u2019s political finances. Millions of dollars were being poured into the state\u2019s ballot drives \u2014 which sought changes in elections, education policy and other laws \u2014 but who was spending them was a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll these ballot measures are out there being proposed and being pushed \u2026 every single day,\u201d said Yu, a state politics reporter at the nonprofit news outlet Bridge Michigan. \u201cWho\u2019s actually behind that effort?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, she investigated to find out. Yu used open-source intelligence \u2014 documents and data that are available to the general public \u2014 including campaign filings and tax returns to find that nearly 90%<\/a> of contributions were from nonprofits such as 501(c)(4)s. Those groups are also called \u201cdark money\u201d groups because they don\u2019t have to disclose who funds them or how much money they dole out. President Joe Biden recently advocated<\/a> for a disclosure bill that would require super PACs and other groups to name donors who contributed $10,000 or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yu\u2019s investigation is just one of many revealing how these people and groups fund politics without having their names attached. Dark money is becoming a ubiquitous part of the U.S.\u2019s political system, and journalists are turning to open source investigative techniques to shine light on the practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dark money didn\u2019t always have such a large influence on politics. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission<\/em> that corporations and nonprofits could spend unlimited amounts of political money. They were previously bound by laws that limited the amount they could spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that Supreme Court ruling, dark money became more and more prevalent, according to Anna Massoglia. Massoglia is an editorial and investigations manager at OpenSecrets<\/a>, which tracks money in politics. She also uses open source intelligence like Form 990s (IRS forms that nonprofits have to complete) and tax records to compile and analyze campaign finance data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open source intelligence, shortened to OSINT, is a powerful and fairly new form of investigative journalism. People dig through troves of publicly-available records to find connections and uncover stories hidden in plain sight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The internet and social media have opened up more possibilities for open source investigations \u2014 and Kevin Nguyen believes a lot of journalism can benefit from this kind of reporting. He began sifting through open source documents in 2012, long before the practice had an established name. Nguyen is now a producer at Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and he said he\u2019s probably one of few dedicated open source reporters in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nguyen also conducts open source trainings for other newsrooms. His advice for people who want to start open source reporting is to jump right in. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the best thing to do for people to get started is actually just pick a story, and then understand how you might approach that through an OSINT lens,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Open-source reporting is particularly useful in uncovering dark money webs because of campaign finance laws. Candidates and policymakers are legally bound to report certain contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, legal loopholes mean certain entities, like 501(c)(4)s, shell companies and super PACs, can spend money without being transparent about where it\u2019s actually coming from. Spending from dark money-funded super PACs increased significantly before the 2018 election cycle and \u201cballooned\u201d in 2020 to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Massoglia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDark money is not going anywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cIt shows no signs of stopping. It\u2019s just getting darker at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the lack of transparency is only getting worse. This election cycle, ahead of midterms, Massoglia said more than a hundred million dollars of dark money has already been spent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawmakers could try to curb the amount of dark money in politics by passing disclosure laws, Massoglia said. The disclosure bill Biden hopes to pass is unlikely to pass<\/a> Congress, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Massoglia is in the midst of tracking 2022 election cycle spending and is already preparing for the 2024 presidential election. OpenSecrets is building up a tool to track how much money political groups spend on online advertising, along the same lines of the database<\/a> it maintained ahead of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open-source intelligence will continue to be a crucial part of that project, and Massoglia and Yu both hope more journalists are able to use open-source reporting. They hosted a panel, along with ProPublica investigative reporter Andy Kroll, at the Online News Association\u2019s 2022 conference to give reporters tips and strategies to use open source materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yu said she also wants to help people feel less intimidated by the idea of investigating dark money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope after today\u2019s session, people are able to realize when you\u2019re talking about dark money, here\u2019s what you\u2019re talking about,\u201d Yu said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s something that \u2014 through so many tools \u2014 you can directly find.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nNew ways to investigate<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Just getting darker\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
There are quite a few open source data repositories that reporters can use to track dark money.<\/h3><\/a>\n\n\n\n