Dimitri Tokmetzis is a Dutch journalist at Follow the Money.
Dimitri Tokmetzis (born 1975) is a Dutch historian and data journalist who has worked for Follow the Money since 2021. As an investigative journalist, he uses the Freedom of Information Act to hold those in power to account. He specialises in technology and surveillance, focusing on threats to privacy.
Tokmetzis began studying history at Utrecht University in 1994, completing his degree with a specialisation in international relations. Between 2001 and 2003, he undertook a postgraduate journalism programme at the Wegener Institute.
He began working as a reporter for the Utrechts Nieuwsblad and the AD/Amersfoortse Courant in 2001. In 2006, he became an investigative journalist for NRC Handelsblad and ANP, a position he held until 2011. He also wrote for De Pers, Trouw, and Intermediair and was editor-in-chief of the Sargasso blog.
In 2012, he was honoured for his articles on the invasion of privacy faced by smartphone users. The following year, he became a data journalist and Freedom of Information Act specialist at the journalism platform De Correspondent. Focusing on hacking, he investigated how risk profiles are increasingly shaping and threatening everyday life, as detailed in his 2016 book De Digitale Schaduw.
In 2017, he was part of a team of twenty-two journalists from eleven European countries who investigated the European security sector. With the support of Journalismfund, this resulted in the large-scale project 'Security for Sale'. For De Correspondent, he wrote about new extremist movements in the Netherlands and Europe. In an attempt to leave fewer digital traces, he swapped his Android phone for an iPhone. He refers to this phone as his 'fascismephone' when conducting research into extremist movements.
