buscabais

Buscabais is a term used in online discourse to describe a collaborative research practice in which participants collectively seek, assemble, and verify information about a person, event, or topic across multiple sources. The term is formed from the Portuguese busca, meaning "search," combined with a suffix that implies communal action. The origin of the term is uncertain; it emerged in informal Brazilian Portuguese-speaking online communities in the early 2010s and has since appeared in broader discussions of crowdsourced information gathering and open-source intelligence (OSINT).

Practices associated with buscabais typically involve coordinating multiple contributors to identify relevant public records, social media posts, geolocation data, and other publicly available materials. Participants share sources, cross-check claims, and annotate findings to avoid duplication of effort. Ethical guidelines emphasize obtaining consent where possible, protecting personal privacy, avoiding doxxing, and clearly distinguishing between evidence and speculation. The approach mirrors OSINT workflows but is usually decentralized and driven by volunteers rather than professionals.

Reception has been mixed. Proponents argue that buscabais fosters transparency, accelerates information gathering, and supports investigative journalism and civic outcomes. Critics warn of privacy risks, potential for misidentification or amplification of rumors, and the lack of formal verification in some contexts.

See also: OSINT, crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, digital literacy, verification.