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Do not treat “real” as a single yes-or-no question. A genuine video can be old, filmed somewhere else, or captioned misleadingly. Verify its source, date, location, depicted event, and any claim about the people shown separately—and corroborate those checks before sharing it as fact.
What exactly are you trying to verify?
Write down the claims attached to the image or video: who recorded it, when and where it was made, what event it depicts, whether the file has been altered or generated, and whether the person sharing it describes it accurately. Evidence for one claim does not settle the others. For example, establishing that a clip is genuine does not establish that it shows the breaking-news event named in its caption.
This distinction is central to the verification guidance from the House of Commons Library, dated 5 May 2026, and the Associated Press (AP). Reuters’ Journalistic Standards likewise prioritize accuracy over speed.
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Preserve the post and record its claim
Save the post URL, account name, visible publication time, caption, and a copy of the file if available. Note precisely what the post claims about the event, place, date or time, and people or groups depicted. Keep the original file unchanged. Record whether your copy was downloaded, screen-recorded, or re-encoded, since those processes can affect what you can learn from it.
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Trace the earliest available version
Search distinctive wording from the caption, visible watermarks, usernames, and representative still frames. Reverse-image searches can help locate earlier appearances of a photo or video frame. The House of Commons Library lists TinEye, Bing, Google, and InVID among options for reverse-image searching. An older upload or a different caption can expose a misleading date or context. But the earliest post you find is only the earliest version located—not proof that its account recorded the material. Where possible, contact the original recorder or uploader and ask about the recording and its context.
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Check the claimed place using independent clues
Look for identifiable buildings, signs, road layouts, language, terrain, and other landmarks. Compare them with maps, satellite or street imagery, and dated photographs. Treat weather, lighting, and shadows as clues to test against weather records and other available evidence, not as proof on their own. Seek independent eyewitness accounts or recordings from different positions, and compare the scene with reliable contemporaneous reporting and relevant official records. A lack of other coverage does not, by itself, show that an event did not happen.
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Test the claimed time and event separately
Compare the recording with dated material and contemporaneous accounts. Ask whether visible conditions and events fit the claimed date and whether independent sources support the caption’s account of what happened. A video can be correctly located but recorded at another time; it can also show a real incident without establishing who was responsible or why it occurred. Do not extend a verified detail into a broader claim the evidence does not support.
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Inspect the file and compare copies
Review video frame by frame for edits, discontinuities, or changes in the background, and compare available versions for differences. A suspicious visual feature deserves investigation, but no single apparent flaw proves manipulation. Metadata may include capture date, location, or device information, yet social platforms often remove it and metadata can be changed. Use it as a lead to corroborate with other evidence, not as a verdict.
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Assess possible manipulation or synthetic media cautiously
Check whether details within the image or video make sense together and whether independent evidence supports the scene. Avoid rules of thumb such as assuming that unusual-looking fingers prove a video is AI-generated. Generated media can be convincing, while detection tools can return uncertain results. Language models can also produce plausible but false identifications or geolocations. If you use these tools, treat their output as a lead; seek evidence another person can independently check, and keep a record of the tool’s limitations and how you tested its suggestions.
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Confirm attribution and permissions before using it
Contact the creator where possible and attribute the source clearly. AP says it confirms authorship and permissions for user-generated content and continues checking material as a story develops. Reuters’ standards call for clear identification of third-party visual sources. If only part of a caption is established, state that part precisely and identify what remains unknown rather than presenting the full caption as verified.
Which verification tools can help?
Choose a tool for the check you need; no platform should be treated as an authenticity oracle. For a newsroom workflow, useful capabilities may include reverse-image search, frame-by-frame video review, social listening, geolocation and chronolocation support, collaboration, record keeping, and a way to manage permissions and data responsibly.
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AP announced AP Verify in 2025, describing features that include reverse image search, frame-by-frame video analysis, social listening, geolocation, object and landmark detection, transcription, and team sharing. That feature list is AP’s description of its service, not an independent assessment of accuracy or suitability. The cited announcement does not establish current pricing, eligibility, or comparative performance; check those directly before choosing it for a newsroom.
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The House of Commons Library’s briefing also outlines open-source checks using maps and imagery. The Verification Handbook, whose publisher describes it as guidance for journalists and aid providers verifying crowd-sourced information, photos, and videos during emergencies, is another professional reference. Check the publisher’s page for the current edition and availability.
Should verified graphic footage be published?
Verification answers whether claims about material are supported; it does not decide whether the material should be shown. Make publication a separate editorial judgment. Consider whether the image is necessary to explain the story, the dignity and privacy of the people depicted, the likelihood of distress, and the audience. Reuters’ standards say packaged videos should be preceded by a screen reading “Warning: Graphic Content.”
For developing stories, retain the checks and update the description if new evidence changes what is known. Make clear which details are confirmed and which remain uncertain; do not let the urgency of a post turn an unverified caption into an established fact.
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