Dataharvest 2026 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Google search is all the same since 1996? No, Google does change over time, but so slow that most people will not notice. The session will give you an update about recent changes (i.e. in the last 4-5 years), will point at workarounds where necessary and will show you what is really new and useful. Towards the end of the session it will give you some advanced Google dorks for immediate journalistic use, but also inspire you to build your own dorks and how to combine LLMs and Google searches.

To follow along, the participants should have used google operators before. After attending the session, you will have an up to date knowledge of Googles web search and other tools for journalistic use.

A Google account can be useful, but is not a must-have.

What really happens behind the glossy surface of OnlyFans — and how do you investigate an industry built on secrecy, money, and blurred consent? After more than a year of reporting on the hidden economy around OnlyFans across five countries, I will take participants inside a world of agencies, chatters, fake identities, reseller servers, and leaked-content markets that platforms never talk about.

This session reveals how intimacy becomes a trap: how creators are manipulated by intermediaries, how their content is redistributed through underground Discord and Telegram networks, and how money flows through a web of crypto, burner accounts, and anonymous middlemen. Using findings from the cross-border investigation, From OnlyFans to OnlyScams, we will show how to uncover what the platform hides.

What attendees will take away:
- Investigating online sex-work ecosystems ethically and safely
- Techniques for undercover reporting, digital tracing, scraping, and mapping hidden networks
- Following payment trails and linking them to real actors
- Interviewing victims and insiders without causing additional harm
- Turning a sensitive, high-risk digital investigation into a powerful cross-border story

This is a practical session for journalists who want to explore one of the fastest-growing — and least understood — shadow economies on the internet.