10SPOT A LIE IN WAYS

A practical guide to separating fact from fiction

by Emily Smith

The internet is awash with edited images, videos, and altered narratives, all of which are getting increasingly diffcult to spot. XCity spoke to Jack Taylor, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Producer and part of the verifcation team at Sky News, about how he detects false material. Along with our own research, here are some of Taylor’s top tips to stop fake news.

Gut Feeling – Fake news is designed to elicit an emotional response. The material will either be so outrageously agreeing with you and your point of view or so extremely disagreeing that you’ll immediately want to engage with it. Especially when it comes to news, the longer and more aggressively you work on a story, the more familiar you become with discourse surrounding it – this is where your gut feeling truly becomes a tool you can rely on.

An example can be seen in the recent altered pictures of past US presidents with mullets, as reported on the New York Post’s site. You can trust your suspicions when faced with a picture of Abraham Lincoln sporting a mullet and aviators.

Context – Taylor says that 90 per cent of the stuff he sees that’s classed as fake is probably just used out of context. In many cases, the actual footage may be unedited and objectively true. However, where the misinformation lies is in the context it’s being used in. One example is videos that were alledgedly posted from the recent tragedy in Turkey, showing fallen buildings. The footage was legitimate, but they weren’t actually from Turkey. What they actually showed were clips from Syria.

Source – Credible sources are where journalists get their scoops, quotes, and information, which is why it’s important to be able to sniff out an unreliable one quickly. When looking at an image, video or statement that seems to be questionable, it is always a good idea to fnd a second source. With an important news story, such as political news, if you can only fnd one account or video covering the story – the likelihood is that it’s been fabricated. This is where Deep Fakes can be easily spotted. An example can be seen in 2019, when a video of a supposedly intoxicated Nancy Pelosi was recorded at an offcial event, accusing a former US president of a cover-up. The viral clip had been AI-altered and was the only footage of the supposed drunken speech. If it had been real, there would’ve been multiple sources of coverage.

Image Quality – With picture editing becoming increasingly more accessible, there’s an infux of altered and edited pictures fooding social media. And we’re not just talking beauty flters. One easy giveaway is the differences in the pixels around the altered subject. There will be a disruption in the pixels between the background of the original image and the edges of the edited object or area.

Develop a Critical Mindset – Alongside trusting your gut, having a critical mindset is important to catching the frst signs of misinformation and starting the process of questioning the validity of material.

Video Editing – If you suspect a video has been altered, you can use apps such as Vegas Pro to split up the frames and fnd faults that were made by the video creator when fabricating the visuals. Prior to this step, if a video has multiple cuts within a clip then it’s already been edited to ft a certain narrative and to follow a decided story. Blurring within the video is also a big red fag of tampered visuals.

Geolocation – A less quick fx is to attempt to locate the video or image you’re questioning. You can do this by looking for distinctive infrastructure, unique landscapes and audio features that may give you clues as to where the footage is located. If a video briefy shows a shop sign, you can search for the shop on Google Earth in the suspected city and enter street view. This will then allow you to observe the surroundings and identify similarities with the video or image you are verifying.

An example is the crowd crush that took place in Seoul last Halloween. Footage that started emerging from crowd perspectives were verifed to be in that exact location by crossreferencing the street and business signs that can be seen in the video to Google Maps.

Sweat the Small Stuff – Dates, spelling, names, fgures, statistics. When it comes to misinformation there is no detail too small or irrelevant. It is important to check these smaller, less obvious details as they often lead to bigger reactions or mistakes. Although harder to spot, taking time to fact-check before reposting or reporting this type of information can save you later down the line and avoid libel cases.

Reverse Image Searches – This type of search will also highlight altered imagery, as by putting a suspected false or tampered with image through a Google Image search, you’ll be alerted to any previous uses and locations of the image.

Snopes – As an independent online publication site for fact checking, Snopes deal with checking information posted online, investigating recent news stories and particularly controversial claims that have been made online. They either fnd the suspicious stories themselves or receive enquiries via the public. These can be about anything from the royal family to digitally manipulated footage of political fgures.