Exclusive / Data journalists start news site to track extremist movements

Two veteran data journalists are launching a new investigative publication to cover rising authoritarianism from the shadowy corners of the internet.

On Monday, former Bellingcat journalist Tristan Lee and open-source researcher Jennefer Harper will launch Decoherence Media, a new digital publication covering “authoritarian and anti-democratic movements, with a particular focus on the far-right.”

The publication is an outgrowth, Lee said, of the de-emphasis of reporting on the far right at many American news organizations. Publications that had previously dedicated resources to writing about extremist political movements, like BuzzFeed News, Vice, The Daily Beast, and others, have since cut back or (in BuzzFeed’s case) stopped doing news altogether. Lee hopes that Decoherence Media can replace some of that reporting.

“At a time when masked agents of the state act with impunity, emboldened neo-Nazi groups march in the streets, and one institution after another legitimizes authoritarian consolidation, there’s a need for unflinching reporting to hold these forces to account,” Lee told Semafor. “But in the past few years, several organizations covering the threats posed by the far-right have closed, downsized, or shifted coverage elsewhere. Our open-source and data-driven approach will help to fill this hole.”

The duo hope to use their data background to show global trends and narratives around rising anti-democratic sentiment by compiling and reporting on public data that often gets overlooked or underanalyzed. Lee said he hopes to make the data easy to use and understand for other journalists, and will make use of material from Telegram, Discord, leaked data, and other sources.

In a message with Semafor, Lee said that the publication would launch on Monday with a 3-part investigation, its first data interface, and other products. The company is looking to raise money, but will launch initially with support from subscribers.