We are surrounded by content, but not all of it is what it seems. In the era of social media and artificial intelligence (AI), misinformation is camouflaged under Shocking headlines and viral posts. It is often difficult to discern what is false from what is true. Is it possible to protect ourselves from this phenomenon? And if it is, where do we start?
The task of addressing misinformation is as challenging as it is necessary. If we stop for a moment to analyze this problem, we can say that false information can reach us in multiple ways: WhatsApp messages, posts on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, platforms like Reddit or Quora and even digital media.
How to protect ourselves from the bombardment of disinformation
Fighting misinformation is not the exclusive task of journalists, fact-checkers, technology companies, academic institutions or governments. Civil society plays a fundamental role in this fight: questioning, verifying and Responsibly Sharing Information. To do this, we have a range of resources available that we can use in this mission.
Fake news has always existed. When Julius Caesar was assassinated, two of his most prominent followers, Mark Antony, his loyal confidant and general, and Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son and self-proclaimed heir, engaged in a bitter struggle for the leadership of Rome. Octavio unleashed a disinformation campaign with the aim of discrediting his opponent and ensuring victory. And finally he did it.
With the arrival of the printing press in the 15th century, the spread of both information and misinformation accelerated. The subsequent appearance of radio, television and the Internet It demolished the few barriers that still remained when it came to sharing information. For decades, messages have been able to travel around the world at surprising speed.
A clear example is what happens on social networks. When someone posts a video on X (formerly Twitter), for example from the United States, with some exceptions, that content can be instantly available anywhere in the world. And, as a 2018 MIT study noted, fake news spreads faster than true news, largely due to its ability to generate intense emotional reactions.
False information shared on Instagram
Furthermore, the algorithms that manage our interactions on digital platforms create information bubbles, limiting our exposure to different points of view. This phenomenon reinforces our pre-existing beliefs, making it even more difficult to distinguish between real information and misinformation.
During the pandemic, numerous hoaxes spread, such as the one suggesting that the new coronavirus could be cured with a mixture of cinnamon, lemon, onion and ginger. Misinformation was also not lacking during the DANA that affected Valencia this year. A video of some protests that occurred in 2017 in Barcelona was spread as if it were current and related to the management of DANA in Valencia. Recently, another AI-manipulated video showed Princess Leonor soliciting money for supposedly charitable purposes.
Resources to combat misinformation
Fortunately, we have a wide range of resources at our disposal that can help us verify information and combat fake news. We can use one or more combined tools to check if what we are reading is true.
Fact Check Pages. The wave of misinformation has given rise to a series of initiatives aimed at verifying the information. The distinctive element of this option is simplicity and transparency. The pages that we will see below usually have their own search engine where we can enter the keywords of the information we want to verify. They also usually include details about the verification methodology they use.
Fact Check Explorer. To verify information quickly, we can use the specialized tool Google Fact Check Explorer. This tool crawls the web looking for denials and analysis of different claims, saving us time and effort.
Web Page Archives. Some web pages or posts disappear or are modified. But there is a way to try to recover a version at a certain time. These are the Internet files that we can consult below. All you have to do is paste the URL in question to see if it has been archived and choose a specific date.
Reverse photo search. Many fake news appear accompanied by images that correspond to other facts or manipulated images. The reverse search allows us to know if the same image has been used in other content previously. Using this resource will be as simple as uploading the image to one of the pages we add below and exploring the results.
Reverse YouTube Video Search. Not only images can be misleading, but videos too. Sometimes a video is taken out of context or manipulated to tell a different story. If we have doubts about the authenticity of a YouTube video, we can use YouTube DataViewer to analyze it in detail.
Search by geolocation. If a news story mentions a specific location, we may use geolocation tools to verify its location and context. For example, if they tell us about a demonstration in a certain city, we can search for images or videos of the area to check if it really happened.
Extensions. Browsing the internet can be like entering a jungle of information. Fortunately, there are browser extensions that can give you a hand when it comes to combating misinformation. These tools offer us additional functions to verify the information we find on the web.
- Search by Image (reverse image search on Google, Bing, Yandex, Baidu and TinEye).
- InVID-WeVerify (tool co-developed by the AFP agency that offers contextual information about images and videos on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube).
Metadata. The photos and videos we see on the internet are not simple images: they carry hidden information that can be very important for our mission. This “metadata” is like a fingerprint that can tell us when and where the file was created, with which camera, etc. For example, if an image supposedly shows a recent event, but the metadata indicates that it was taken years ago, we will have a hint of manipulation or erroneous context.
authentic accounts. Previously, seeing a badge on a Twitter or Instagram profile gave us some assurance that it was an authentic account. But things have changed, and now that brand doesn’t always mean the same thing.
With the arrival of paid subscriptions on some social networks, having a verification badge is within everyone’s reach. This means we need to be more careful than ever when trusting the information we find online.
- X: The blue tick is synonymous with an active X Premium subscription. The gold mark refers to “Verified Organizations” and the gray mark refers to government accounts or multilateral organizations.
- Meta Verified: the blue maraca promises to demonstrate authenticity of accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
At this point we must keep in mind that certain people can use tactics to obtain a verification badge and share misinformation. Also, some official and authentic pages do not have verification badge. For example, the official profiles on X and Facebook of the Madrid Firefighters do not have a verification badge.
How can we know if they are authentic accounts? A very useful way to know if an account is authentic is to reach it through its official website. In this case, the Madrid Firefighters page links to the aforementioned profiles on social networks.
How to detect if an image has been falsified or adulterated
- Reflections and shadows: We carefully observe the reflections and shadows in the image. Do they seem to follow the correct direction of the light? If something doesn’t add up, it may be a sign that the image has been modified.
- hands and ears– Hands and ears are complex body parts that are often distorted when manipulating an image. We look at the details: do the hands have the right number of fingers? Are the ears the right shape?
- Image noise: Image noise is that “grain” that appears in photos, especially in dark areas. When an image is manipulated, noise can be altered or disappear completely.
- Metadata: Metadata is that hidden information that can tell us a lot about an image. If we have doubts about the authenticity of a photo, we examine its metadata. The date, time, location or camera model can give us important clues.
- AI tags on social media: Some social networks, such as Instagram, are starting to label images generated by artificial intelligence. We keep an eye on these tags as they help us identify images that are not real.
Images | Joseph Frank | Screenshots
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