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From OnlyFans to OnlyScams

  • Exploitation
  • Human Rights
  • Technology

BARCELONA/BRATISLAVA/BERLIN/LISBON/COPENHAGEN/PRAGUE-This investigation focuses on the winners and losers in the online sex work revolution, where people can buy digital subscriptions to explicit content. A pioneer of this model is OnlyFans, a booming platform whose users spent $6.6 billion in 2023 alone.

Photo credit: Unsplash

Obesity as a Business Model

  • Healthcare
  • Industry

AMSTERDAM - This investigative project explores how Big Food and pharmaceutical companies profit from both the causes and "solutions" to obesity. Research by The Investigative Desk for Follow the Money shows that Big Food not only promotes unhealthy eating habits, but also invests in products that are marketed as solutions to diet-related conditions.

Sophie Smeets | Follow The Money

The surrogacy business in Europe

  • Healthcare
  • Human Rights
  • Social affairs

ATHENS - The surrogacy landscape in Europe reveals a complex interplay of ethical issues and varied legislative frameworks as the demand for surrogacy services continues to grow in the Global North. This investigation explores the surrogacy practices in Spain, Greece, Ukraine, and Georgia, highlighting their distinct legal environments and market conditions.

Photo: Maria Volkova

White Lines, Political Play

  • Corruption
  • Organised crime
  • Trafficking

BELGRADE - Cocaine production and trafficking has reached record levels, with organised crime groups from the Western Balkans playing a major role in the EU market, working with Dutch groups. The recent hacking of the encrypted messaging platform Sky ECC has revealed the inner workings of criminal organisations. A team of journalists from Serbia and the Netherlands investigated the impact of the violent cocaine business linking their countries.

Photo credit: Dutch Customs/Douane Nederland.

Collectors of Sanctioned Exports

  • Armed conflict
  • Security

RIGA - In February 2023, the European Union agreed on the 10th package of sanctions against Russian goods, including the import of bitumen. Despite these bans, 29,5 thousand tonnes of bitumen worth $7.8 million were exported from Russia to Latvia in 2023, as calculated by The Chronicles.Media using data from the customs database.

The Ultra-potent Drugs Infiltrating Europe

  • Healthcare
  • Organised crime

TALINN - AMSTERDAM- A new and powerful type of drugs is rapidly emerging in Europe: nitazenes. In this joint investigation with Bellingcat and Postimees, the team looked at where these drugs are coming from and who they’re affecting. 

the ultra-potent drugs infiltrating Europe

Inside Europe’s AI Border Fortress

  • Human Rights
  • Migration
  • Technology

ATHENS -The European Union is deploying AI-driven technologies along its borders in an to attempt to control migration flows, raising legal and ethical concerns about the impact on migrants' rights. While these systems are promoted as improving efficiency and security, they have raised concerns about privacy violations and restrictions on the right to asylum, concerns that this research confirms.

Camera at refugee camp on Samos

Returning Home Without an Arm or a Leg

  • Exploitation
  • Migration
  • Work

AMSTERDAM - What happens when one of the millions of migrant workers living and working in the Netherlands - often in dangerous jobs - is permanently injured in an accident at work? This investigation sheds light on workplace accidents among migrant workers in the Netherlands.

Arming the World: Rheinmetall’s Secretive Ammunition Factory Programme

  • Armed conflict
  • Industry
  • Security

DÜSSELDORF – Investigate Europe's 'Arming the World' project reveals how German arms giant Rheinmetall has been quietly pursuing its global expansion strategy by supplying ammunition factories abroad, away from public scrutiny.

Europe's Secret Arms Route to Russia

  • Armed conflict
  • Security

PRAGUE/ROME/LATVIA A joint investigation by Investigace, IrpiMedia and The Insider has revealed how thousands of European and American small arms were smuggled into Russia and used in the war with Ukraine.

a Russian sniper armed with a US-made DesertTech .37XC rifle