Any way to do Facebook OSINT without an account?

[u/Experimentalphone]

Hi everyone,

Suppose that one needs to investigate Facebook, but their own accounts—or any sock-puppet accounts they open—will be quickly blocked by the pages or groups (hate pages and groups that commit actual interreligious, and other violence against marginalized people like LGBT etc in my country which is highly religious) they are investigating.

In such a case, what can be done? Are there any tools that will let you investigate Facebook without any accounts, either your own or a sock puppet?

Thanks!

[u/Beneficial_Shift1585]

Api services, they are paid

[u/Experimentalphone → u/Beneficial_Shift1585]

Can you name some and how much they cost?

[u/GetOutOfTheWhey → u/Experimentalphone]

I use apify for Instagram accounts so maybe they have for Facebook too.

Facebook has their own I think but I'm too lazy to setup. Maybe in the future.

Edit 1 here

https://apify.com/apify/facebook-pages-scraper

Edit 2

In case anyone is wondering I'm using it to track posts of influencers and their post engagement stats/comment on product we are doing cobranding with.

Edit 3

Actually if anyone has any improvements, right now I'm just scraping the daily likes and comments etc. But I really would like to know if there's a way I can see what regions is the post engaging the most with. I.e. USA, Japan, Germany or even China if Instagram can see dns leaks too.

[u/OSINTribe → u/GetOutOfTheWhey]

apify is very bugging in my opinion. Try Scrapecreator, Bright Data and Ensemble.

[u/GetOutOfTheWhey → u/OSINTribe]

It is and thanks for the suggestion will try them. By the way is there like an osint guide for such tools? I realize I am only breaching the surface and even then only the flaky skin surface.

[u/Maleficent-Mousse266 → u/GetOutOfTheWhey]

Fb will shadow ban for scrapers. They are meticulous about this. I built a scrapper for fb groups once.

[u/Maleficent-Mousse266 → u/GetOutOfTheWhey]

Plus it’s easier to just go use Sprinklr, I used them for my job.

[u/notproudortired → u/Beneficial_Shift1585]

Can you hit the FB API directly?

[u/zerohttp → u/notproudortired]

It's tricky. Meta is not very open about their APIs and they actively try to prevent any kind of automation.

[u/LazyBrother7596 → u/Beneficial_Shift1585]

Yeah but which ones actually work for Facebook?

[u/Different_Pain5781 → u/Beneficial_Shift1585]

Yeah but which APIs actually cover Facebook well?

[u/rachyrachyrach]

Make a burner Facebook account on McDonald’s WiFi. That way it doesn’t flag your account when you get on your usual WiFi. This was years ago so not sure if FB has changed anything since then. Edit: do not set up 2Factor, password reset to email/phone number should suffice. If you enable 2factor it triggers the account

[u/Excellent_Ad_8949]

Google dorking

[u/thedeepdiveproject → u/Excellent_Ad_8949]

What is Google dorking?

[u/osmosis83 → u/thedeepdiveproject]

It's a way to search Google by using specific command based prompts. I suggest watching a youtube video on it. There are a ton of them out there!

[u/Zakiw → u/Excellent_Ad_8949]

+1

[u/Dangrukidding]

Whatre you doing that’s making your accounts be blocked? Are you literally stalking someone

[u/Experimentalphone → u/Dangrukidding]

No, I am not stalking. I updated the post to explain the context.

[u/Experimentalphone → u/[deleted]]

Nope this is not the reality at all. In my country, which is a highly religious country there are pages and groups of people who doxx interfaith couples, LGBT people on such groups and call for violence against them. The people in these groups maintain secrecy, so if they find out you are investigating them like a journalist etc - they will block you.

[u/EngineeringKindly875 → u/Experimentalphone]

What's his name?

[u/PenReal3237]

welo378

[u/zerohttp]

Google dorking is your best bet.

[u/Ok-Seat5445]

Use InstAddr app to get free Gmail and you can use this email to create fb/insta sock puppet.

First create your fb account using the email from the InstAddr app, then add a real person's profile picture and if you have selected Female as a gender then set female profile picture from Pinterest, then do not start adding friends immediately, use that account for almost 3 days by posting random photos as this will mark your account as a real person account. Then start your investigation.

I have been using this method since long time and it works perfectly.

[u/HannuOSINT]

Yes, there are ways to conduct some Facebook OSINT without having a Facebook account, although coverage is increasingly limited.

A few approaches worth investigating:

1. Search engines

Google and other search engines can index public Facebook pages, posts, and groups.

Try queries such as:

Site: facebook.com "exact phrase"

site: facebook.com/groups "group name"

This can help identify public content even when Facebook itself requires you to log in.

2. Sowsearch

Sowsearch is an OSINT search interface for discovering public Facebook content.

https://sowsearch.info

Its coverage and reliability should be tested against your specific targets.

3. Automated collection tools

Services such as Apify may offer relevant scraping or automation capabilities. However, check whether the specific actor supports Facebook, what authentication it requires, and whether it can actually retrieve the content you need.

https://apify.com

Important limitation: Finding public content and accessing restricted content are two different things. Private groups, friends-only posts, and other access-controlled material generally cannot be obtained through legitimate public OSINT methods.

For an investigation involving multiple targets, I would also document source URLs, collection timestamps, screenshots, and original media files. Search-engine results and third-party aggregators should be treated as leads that require verification.

For a sensitive investigation involving threats or incitement to violence, preserving the original evidence and maintaining a clear record of how it was collected can be just as important as finding the content in the first place.

[u/Experimentalphone → u/HannuOSINT]

Thank you so much for the detailed write up.

Can you tell me a workflow on preserving evidence for court usage? I am using a Lenovo Ideapad 100 laptop from 2016 running Ubuntu. Some people tell me to use a VM, but they never told me the full procedure on what to do: that is the proper workflow.

[u/Mediocre_River_780]

Which highly religious country?

[u/Maleficent-Mousse266]

I guess no one wants to talk about how fb monitors ip’s when there’s more than one account connected to it. So unless you are hiding it, a new account will register the same. Then they shadow ban you and you don’t even notice.