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BBC breaks down investigation into a mass killing in viral Twitter thread

"Investigative journalism at its finest."

Sam Haysom

on September 25, 2018

The BBC has used a series of GIFs, videos, and images to break down its investigation into a video of two women and two children being shot by soldiers.

The clip, which appeared on social media in July, quickly went viral and sparked outrage and speculation. In a detailed Twitter thread posted on Monday, BBC News Africa explained how journalists used a combination of sources, geographical clues, and online detective work to establish where the footage was filmed, when the killings took place, and who was involved.

Here's the Twitter thread, in full.

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Since being posted on Monday, that thread has amassed thousands and thousands of retweets. A number of people, including celebrities, have praised the journalism behind the thread.

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Aliaume Leroy, a BBC Africa journalist who worked on the investigation, said that the team initially set out to discover where and when the video took place, and who can be seen in the clip.

"We thought it was very important, you know, to work on this video to verify it and to prove who were the perpetrators," he told Carol Off, host of As It Happens, per CBC.

Mashable has reached out to the BBC for comment.

Topics BBC Social Good Politics