Open Measures
Tool Description : Open-source platform built to help researchers identify online threats like disinformation and extremism to mitigate offline harm.
Open Measures
Quick Overview
What it does
Collects and analyses public online discussion data, and maps communities, conversations, and narrative spread across the internet.
How to use it
Search topic, explore communities, then analyse content trends and networks.
Cost
Partially Free. Basic use is free. Advanced features require payment.
Account required
Yes for full platform access.
Cookies
Mainly used for analytics, A/B testing, and session management.
Ownership
Privately operated research organisation based in Brooklyn, New York,headed up by CEO, Hank Teran.
Use in Reporting
Track trends related to networks of influence, coordinated harassment campaigns, and state-backed info ops.
What does Open Measures do?
Open Measures is a data and analytics platform that focuses on understanding how communities and narratives form and evolve online. It collects publicly available data from across different digital spaces and structures it so researchers and journalists can analyse patterns of communication.
Instead of looking at individual posts in isolation, it helps map broader ecosystems, showing how ideas spread, which communities are connected, and where coordinated activity may be taking place.
It’s widely used in research and OSINT work focused on disinformation, extremism, and online influence operations.
The lowdown: It’s a strong tool for mapping how narratives and communities spread across platforms but still requires careful interpretation as it can miss context or private/closed online activity.
How to Use:
1. Enter a topic, keyword, or community of interest.
Note: you can filter particular communities as in our example below where we filtered down to Bluesky and Telegram:
2. Explore mapped discussions and data and analyse patterns and connections.
You can view results as so:
Cost
Basic use is free. Advanced features require payment.
Data Processing
Account Required:
Cookies:
Cookies are mainly used for analytics, A/B testing, and session management. They track site usage patterns (Google Analytics), support experimentation and feature testing, and maintain user sessions and load balancing for platform performance.
Use in Reporting
Open Measures is useful for:
Tracking online narratives and misinformation spread.
Mapping extremist or niche online communities.
Analysing discourse across platforms.
Supporting investigations into coordinated influence campaigns.
Providing data for research-driven journalism.
Case examples can be found here:
Capabilities
Limitations
Maps online communities and discourse networks.
Focuses on publicly available data only. May miss encrypted/private community activity.
Tracks narrative and misinformation spread.
Coverage varies depending on platform access and indexing.
Aggregates data from multiple online platforms.
Interpretation required as insights are not always definitive.
Supports research into coordinated influence operations.
Requires analytical skill to avoid over-attribution.
Helps visualise relationships between communities.
Summary
After initial data collection, Open Measures sits in the analysis stage of the OSINT workflow, used to map how content, communities, and narratives spread across platforms, helping analysts move from individual posts to broader patterns of influence and coordination.
Ownership
Open Measures is a privately operated research organisation based in Brooklyn, New York, founded by a small team and headed up by CEO, Hank Teran.
Ethical Considerations
Data is publicly sourced but should be interpreted carefully.
Avoid mislabelling communities based on partial data.
Be cautious when analysing sensitive or marginalised groups.
Ensure findings are contextualised before publication.
Respect platform terms and data use policies.
Related Tools:
Sources
https://openmeasures.io/open-measures-open-source-journalism
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