Guides

LineNews

LineNews is free journalism inside Linework: anyone can report the facts — with text, photo, video and testimony — from any country, and choose to stay anonymous. It exists to give a voice to people who denounce wrongdoing and to protect those who risk everything to speak. This page explains exactly how it works in the app, how we protect you at the technical level, and — just as important — what it cannot promise.

How it works in the app, step by step#

You reach LineNews from its icon in the bottom bar of the app (a trending line), from the Trends tab, or on the web at web.linework.app/linenews. The flow is built so that the safe choice is the easy one:

Open the channel. The LineNews icon in the bottom bar, or Trends → LineNews. You see two feeds: Local (your country) and World.
Safety onboarding (first time). Before you can write the first time, a short guide explains how anonymity works and what it can and cannot protect. You can reopen it any time.
Tap Write and choose how to sign: real name, pseudonym, or anonymous (explained below).
Write the report. A title and the facts; an optional structured testimony (what, when, where); and optional photo or video. Any photo or video you attach is cleaned on your phone (see below) before it is uploaded.
Set country and category, then publish.
It goes live in the in-app Local/World feed and is published automatically on the public Newsroom at news.linework.app, so your report reaches readers outside the app too.

Who can publish, and how#

Anyone can become a LineNews reporter. For every single article you choose how to sign it — the choice is per article, not per account:

Real name — the platform knows it is you; for now the public feed shows it as Reporter, without your name or profile.
Pseudonym — the public sees a pen name; the platform still knows who you are (so a pseudonym protects you from readers, not from a legal order to the platform).
Anonymous — we never store who you are. Not even we know. Choose this if you could be harmed for what you publish.

How we protect you, technically#

Source protection is built into the architecture, not bolted on as a setting. For an anonymous report, here is what actually happens:

Metadata is removed on your phone. Every photo and video is re-encoded on the device, which strips EXIF/GPS coordinates, camera and device identifiers and timestamps, and the file is given a random name — all before it leaves your phone. The original is never uploaded.
Sealed, no-log identity. An anonymous post is saved with no author at all: there is no link to any account in the database (the author field is empty, not hidden). The app authorizes the post with a short-lived one-time token that proves "a human may post now" without carrying any identity. There is nothing to leak, subpoena, or hand over later — because it was never written down.
Your IP is never logged. On the anonymous endpoints the server is configured to skip request logging and to overwrite the forwarded client address with 0.0.0.0 before the request reaches the application. Your IP address is not stored, and the app itself never even sees it.
Media never passes through us with your identity. The app uploads your (already cleaned) photo or video straight to object storage with a one-time signed link, so the file and your session are never joined together on our side.

If you pick pseudonym or real name instead, the identity link is stored (that is the point of those modes) — so only choose them when being known is safe for you.

What a moderator can see — and what they can't#

A human moderation team keeps LineNews from being abused: they can quarantine or remove content that breaks the rules (doxxing, incitement to violence, illegal material) and can mark trustworthy reports as verified. What they work with is the content of the report. They do not see the real author of an anonymous post — for an anonymous report that identity does not exist anywhere in our systems, so there is nothing for a moderator, an administrator, or anyone with a court order to reveal. For pseudonymous posts, moderators still do not see your real name in the moderation tools.

The limits: what LineNews cannot promise#

We will always be honest with you, because a false sense of safety is dangerous. No system gives perfect anonymity, and LineNews is no exception:

The network layer is outside the app. We do not log your IP, but your phone still reaches the internet through your carrier or Wi-Fi, and they can see that you connected to Linework. If that matters to you, use Tor or a trusted VPN as well.
Your content can identify you. Writing style, facts only a few people know, a face, a licence plate, a document, a reflection, a recognizable room or street — any of these can give you away even with perfect technical anonymity. Metadata scrubbing removes hidden data; it cannot remove what is visible in the picture itself.
Pseudonym is not anonymity. It hides you from readers, not from the platform or from a lawful request to it.
Published content is public. Once a report is live on the Newsroom it can be seen, saved and shared by anyone, and laws differ from country to country.

If your life is at risk#

If you could be seriously harmed for what you publish, treat LineNews as one layer, not the whole shield. Use dedicated tools alongside it — Tor, Signal, SecureDrop — and connect through a protected network (VPN/Tor) before you open the app. If the stakes are extreme, consider a device and an account that cannot be traced back to you. Always post anonymously in these situations.

Your safety checklist before you post#

Choose Anonymous if being identified could put you or others in danger.
Look hard at every photo and video: faces, documents, badges, plates, screens, reflections, recognizable places — crop or blur them.
Avoid details that only you and a handful of people could know.
For dangerous situations, add Tor/Signal/SecureDrop and a VPN or Tor connection.
When in doubt, publish less: a shorter report that cannot be traced to you is worth more than a complete one that can.

LineNews on the web#

LineNews also works on web.linework.app/linenews, even without logging in: read the Local and World feeds, write with Become a journalist — publish, use hidden groups and report. On the web, photos are cleaned of their metadata in your browser; videos can be added only from the mobile app; the country is written as a two-letter code. Group keys are kept in the browser, which is less protected than a phone: for high-risk use, prefer the app. The World feed also appears on news.linework.app. Each report shows its signature (Reporter, the pen name or Anonymous), country and category, and a green Verified mark when our moderators have checked it.

The LineNews AI accounts#

Separate from the reporters' channel, you may see four accounts run by Linework with AI in the normal feed: LineNews Mondo · AI (news, world, economy, environment, science, culture; no partisan politics or elections), LineNews Tech · AI (technology, AI, smartphones, space, crypto; facts only, never investment advice), LineNews Lifestyle · AI (trends, travel, fashion, design, food, entertainment, seasonal events) and LineNews Sport · AI (official results and facts; no betting).

How to recognize them: the black AI badge next to the name, "· AI" in the name, and the bio saying the account is run by AI. Their avatar is a coloured monogram, never a face.
What they post: a short original summary (in Italian) of news reported by several outlets, with 1–2 hashtags and always a Source line with the outlet and a link to the original article. Images are either archive photos with their author and licence, or marked "Image generated with AI" / "Video generated with AI".
What they leave out: graphic violence, adult content, unconfirmed rumours, health or diet advice.
They post in the feed, never in the reporters' LineNews channel or on news.linework.app. You can follow them, block them or report a post like any other account.