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A video can be genuine and still be old, filmed somewhere else, or too limited to prove what its caption claims. Verify the original post and the media separately, test the date and location with independent clues, and corroborate the visible events before drawing conclusions. State exactly what the evidence establishes—and what remains uncertain.
Separate the media from the claims around it
Treat a report, photograph, or video as several questions rather than one verdict. A caption may claim a particular event happened at a particular place and time, involve named people or forces, and have a stated cause or responsible party. Each part needs its own evidence.
- Authenticity: Is this the original media, or has it been edited, cropped, or recompressed?
- Provenance: Who posted or supplied it, and what is known about how it reached them?
- Location and date: Do independent visual or other clues support the claimed place and time?
- Content and context: What can actually be seen, and does it establish the broader event or responsibility asserted in the caption?
A correct location does not establish a recording date. A genuine recording does not automatically establish the identity or intent of people shown, the cause of damage, or the full scale of an incident.
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Keep the earliest available version
Save the original file if you can, or preserve the earliest available post. Record its URL, account name, posting time, and caption. Note visible signs that the copy is cropped, edited, or recompressed. A repost may help trace how material circulated, but the repost date is not necessarily when it was recorded. File metadata can be useful, but its presence alone does not establish authenticity.
Break the caption into claims
Write down what the caption asserts about the event, location, date, people or forces, and cause or responsibility. Check these separately. The video might be genuine but old, correctly located but miscaptioned, or real while showing only part of what happened.
Test where and when the media was made
Compare multiple location clues
Look for distinctive buildings, terrain, roads, signs, vegetation, and skyline. Compare several features with satellite imagery or ground-level images rather than relying on one resemblance. Account for changes to a place over time. Human Rights Watch describes comparing video imagery with satellite imagery for location work; its guidance also cautions that street imagery has a capture date that must be checked (HRW’s 2024 video-analysis guide). Amnesty’s general verification guide likewise describes matching landscapes, trees, buildings, and streets, and considering weather and shadows (Amnesty’s verification guide). That guide concerns methods used in investigations of Ukraine, not Tigray-specific findings.
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Check the date independently
Compare visible light and shadows, weather, construction changes, and any usable file or posting metadata with the claimed date. Treat timestamps and metadata as clues, not conclusive proof: they may be incomplete or manipulated. HRW describes combining shadow and imagery analysis with survivor and witness interviews to assess when footage was made. In its Western Tigray investigation, researchers considered metadata, social-media timestamps, witness interviews, and changes visible in satellite imagery (the joint 2022 report).
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Start with observable details: visible damage, injuries, objects, and the camera’s view of the site. For an attack, potentially relevant clues include damage patterns, craters, remnants, and how the filmed area relates to the wider location. Do not turn a visual impression into a weapon identification, intent claim, or attribution of responsibility without appropriate corroboration. Attribute specialist weapons or forensic judgments to the investigators or experts who made them.
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Amnesty’s guide describes remote sensing and weapons expertise as parts of an investigation alongside other evidence. Those methods can add context, but a single visual clue does not establish the complete event.
Corroborate with independent evidence
Seek witness accounts and relevant medical, forensic, documentary, or satellite evidence. Ask whether sources are independent: several accounts repeating the same original post are not several independent confirmations.
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Investigations in Tigray illustrate how different evidence strands can be combined. In its November 2020 Mai-Kadra investigation, Amnesty said its Crisis Evidence Lab digitally verified photographs and videos of bodies, confirmed the images were recent, and geolocated them to the town using satellite imagery. The investigation also used witness accounts and an independent pathologist (Amnesty’s Mai-Kadra report). This documents the methods used for those images; it does not verify every image later circulated from the conflict.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFor an August 20, 2026 airstrike on a residential compound in Daero, Mekelle, HRW reported interviewing three survivors, two medical workers, and two residents who visited the site, and analyzing satellite imagery and verified photographs and videos. HRW reported 13 civilian injuries, including seven children. Those findings concern that specific incident (HRW’s September 25, 2026 report), not the conflict as a whole.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Account for gaps in Tigray conflict documentation
Communications restrictions affected what could be documented. In its April 6, 2022 joint report on Western Tigray, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said researchers reviewed medical reports and forensic analysis, satellite imagery, videos, and photographs. The organizations described documenting specific incidents and trends, not conducting a comprehensive survey, and said communications restrictions meant there were few videos and photographs to analyze.
For that report, Amnesty said it verified five videos sent directly to its researchers and six videos posted to Facebook or YouTube. Those counts describe the material verified for that report; they are not totals for all footage from the conflict or a measure of online accuracy. No independent survey statistic establishing an accuracy rate for online Tigray conflict videos is available in the cited material. Limited documentation should not be mistaken for proof that no other events occurred, or for comprehensive coverage.
Report the conclusion as narrowly as the evidence allows
Make clear which part of a claim is supported and by what kind of evidence. Attribute findings to the organization or investigators who made them, and distinguish an investigative assessment from a court finding. Explain material gaps and uncertainty without treating them as proof for or against the caption.
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For example, a careful conclusion might say that investigators geolocated a clip to a named town and found its visible details consistent with a reported incident, while the clip alone does not establish the date, responsibility, or full scale of that incident. Do not imply that one verified clip settles those broader questions.
Conflict conditions can change. HRW’s September 25, 2026 report describes renewed clashes and an August 20 airstrike; it is a dated account, not a durable description of current conditions. Attach current claims to the date and source that support them.
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