We check what the powerful put on paper.
The Countersign is an independent publication reporting on power and money, with surveillance and technology as its home turf. Every story is built on primary records, and every story publishes its sources.
How it works
We start from the record
Court filings, contracts, statutes, official data and agencies’ own documents come first. Other outlets’ reporting is credited as their reporting.
An AI assistant helps
Each story is researched and drafted with an AI assistant. It is a tool, never a source, and it never gets a byline.
A human editor signs off
The editor of record reports, fact-checks and edits the story, reads every source before publication, and puts their name to it.
We show our work
Every story ends with its sources: links to the records, archived copies and what each one supports. Corrections stay on the page, dated.
In preparation
Our first stories are on the way
We haven’t published yet. The first stories are being reported now, and they’ll appear on the Stories page and in our RSS feed when they’re ready.
Our standards
We hold every story to a short set of rules, and we publish them so you can hold us to them too.