Forensic linguistics is the application of linguistic knowledge to identify the author of a text or the person behind a voice. Author identification (also called stylometry) is based on the analysis of certain patterns of language use: vocabulary, collocations, spelling, grammar, etc. Voice identification is based on speech sounds (phonetics) and the acoustic qualities of the voice.
Author identification can be used, for example, to determine:
- Who wrote an anonymous action claim posted on the Internet or sent to a newspaper.
- Whether multiple anonymous action claims were likely written by the same person or group.
- Who wrote a plan describing illegal activities found during a house raid, a covert house visit or an arrest.
Voice identification can be used, for example, to determine:
- Who is speaking on a tapped mobile phone or a recording made by a hidden microphone.
- Who called the authorities to make a bomb threat.
On the topic of author identification:
- Counteracting Forensic Linguistics[1].
- Who wrote that?.
Used in tactics: Incrimination
Mitigations
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Biometric concealment | You can hide the acoustic properties of your voice to mitigate voice identification. |
| Masking your writing style | You can mask your writing style to mitigate author identification. |
Used in repressive operations
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Scripta Manent | Texts published by some of the defendants were compared with action claims by the Informal Anarchist Federation, with the aim of proving that the defendants had written these claims[2]. |