A dataset of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tweets about the Russo-Ukrainian war

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new large-scale dataset of nearly 2 million Twitter posts related to the Russo-Ukrainian war, collected through a snowballing method, enabling better analysis of OSINT in conflict scenarios.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel method for collecting OSINT data and provides a comprehensive dataset from Twitter for the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, facilitating future research.

Findings

Initial analyses of the dataset reveal patterns in OSINT dissemination.

The dataset enables tracking misinformation spread during the conflict.

The collection method can be adapted for other conflict-related OSINT data.

Abstract

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) refers to intelligence efforts based on freely available data. It has become a frequent topic of conversation on social media, where private users or networks can share their findings. Such data is highly valuable in conflicts, both for gaining a new understanding of the situation as well as for tracking the spread of misinformation. In this paper, we present a method for collecting such data as well as a novel OSINT dataset for the Russo-Ukrainian war drawn from Twitter between January 2022 and July 2023. It is based on an initial search of users posting OSINT and a subsequent snowballing approach to detect more. The final dataset contains almost 2 million Tweets posted by 1040 users. We also provide some first analyses and experiments on the data, and make suggestions for its future usage.