FIRST DRAFT'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO Verifying Online Information October 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 5 CHAPTER 1 Absolute essentials 9 CHAPTER 2 Provenance 25 CHAPTER 3 Source 33 CHAPTER 4 Date 39 CHAPTER 5 Location 43 CHAPTER 6 Motivation 49 3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shaydanay Urbani is a writer and research reporter at First Draft, where she covers disinformation and trains journalists internationally in verification and responsible reporting. She has a background in criminal justice reporting, Middle Eastern languages and politics, and food policy, as well as a masters in journalism from The City University of New York. When she’s not working, she dances with a professional salsa team in New York City. Introduction This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. 5 VERIFICATION OF ONLINE CONTENT CAN BE Don’t get duped. Learn to verify. INTIMIDATING, BUT IT IS NOT DIFFICULT. Being good at verification is mostly about repetition, HOW TO USE THIS BOOK persistence and using digital investigative tools with a little creativity. There are so many verification tricks and Before you embark on any verification adventure, tools available now. In fact, the hardest part might be start by reading the first chapter, ‘Absolute Essentials’. remembering all of the resources at your disposal. These are the need-to-know concepts that could save you time and potentially embarrassment. That’s where this book comes in. This is your little condensed guide to the wizardry of verification. It The rest of the book is organized into five basic includes essential concepts, checklists and our favorite checks that you should do on any piece of content tips and techniques. Most importantly, it will introduce you wish to verify, whether it is eyewitness media, you to the five pillars of verification, and hopefully serve a manipulated video or a meme. as a quick reference for how to tackle each one. Of these chapters, ‘Provenance’ is the most important, Information travels so quickly now, and disinformation so pay extra attention to that one. Otherwise, feel is becoming so easy to generate and spread that it is free to flip through at your leisure, or go straight to important for every journalist — not just the tech a tip list that’s relevant for you. reporter and the social media editor — to understand basic verification skills. Verification is a fluid process of finding new clues and corroborating evidence, and the progress you make This is especially true in a breaking news environment, on one check might help you with another. when the pressure is high to both report quickly and get the facts straight. Newsrooms also need to protect themselves from being hoaxed and inadvertently introducing falsehoods to a wider audience. Many agents of disinformation see coverage by established news outlets as the end-goal and will use online spaces to seed rumors and manipulated content, hoping to reach a bigger audience. For more information on this see First Draft's Essential Guide to Responsible Reporting in an Age of Information Disorder 1. 6 VERIFYING ONLINE INFORMATION INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER 1 Absolute essentials 8 VERIFYING ONLINE INFORMATION 9 WAIT! BEFORE YOU START PROVENANCE: Are you looking at the original account, article Before verifying any content online, ask yourself this or piece of content? first most basic question: Is the content I am looking at connected to an event that actually took place? SOURCE: In some circumstances, like a breaking news event, Who created the account or article, or captured this question might be the very thing you are trying the original piece of content? to ascertain with your verification. But in some cases it isn’t. DATE: Imagine you find a video that claims to be of long When was it created? lines and unhappy passengers at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Before you go down the rabbit LOCATION: hole of verifying the person who captured the video, the date and time, or the location, your first question Where was the account established, website created should be this one: are there actually reports of or piece of content captured? problems at the airport? MOTIVATION: Another example is the infamous headline that emerged ahead of the 2016 US election: Pope Endorses Donald Why was the account established, website created Trump. You can do all the verification you like about the or the piece of content captured? website, who created it, when the article was published and how far it spread, etc. but the fundamental claim The more you know about each pillar, the stronger of the article should be the first thing you check. your verification will be. THE ELUSIVENESS OF CERTAINTY THE 5 PILLARS OF VERIFICATION The nice thing about teaching verification is that it Verification is hardly ever foolproof. It is more is easy to break down. That’s because whether you are like looking for clues and collecting corroborating looking at an eyewitness video, a manipulated photo, evidence. Picture an old-fashioned detective’s a sockpuppet account or a meme, the basic checks investigation board. Bits of information are pinned you have to run on them are the same: to the board: a location, a name, a telling quote. 10 VERIFYING ONLINE INFORMATION ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS 11 Lines between the clues present a web of connections. That’s what digital verification is: the same old methods reporters and investigators have always used to get at the truth, but applied to the world wide web. So go ahead and channel your inner Sherlock Holmes, collect as much evidence as you can, but realize that you will not always get a definitive answer. Realize also that the fact that certainty eludes us means it is all the Provenance Source Date Location Motivation more important that we are forthright about what we know and what we don’t know — especially if that information is going to inform our reporting. The following pages are two rubrics we built for verifying visual media — one for photo and one for video — that will help you gauge how airtight your verification is, and where the holes might be. The 5 pillars of visual verification. Source: First Draft. 12 VERIFYING ONLINE INFORMATION ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS 13 VISUAL VERIFICATION GUIDE: PHOTOS NO YES 1. ARE YOU A reverse image A reverse image A date search on each We are unable to find It was sent to us LOOKING AT search returns search returns similar social network reveals other versions online directly and we have THE ORIGINAL identical photos results with some it to be the first of and basic shadow and spoken to the source VERSION? indexed online before identical features, many versions shared reflection checks the event in question suggesting it might online but we have suggest that it has not took place be a composite not yet received been manipulated confirmation from the uploader 2. DO YOU KNOW It came in via an It was uploaded to By running full name We communicated We questioned WHO CAPTURED anonymous email a social network but searches, reverse with the uploader the source and their THE PHOTO? or chat app number the username does searching the user’s via social media to answers correlated not appear elsewhere profile photo, and / or confirm that they with EXIF data, online. The uploader researching the domain took the photo weather reports wants to remain ownership of their and their own anonymous blog or website, we online footprint were able to identify the uploader 3. DO YOU KNOW There was no location We have cross- We have used We have The source was WHERE THE data available and it referenced with other visual clues such as crossreferenced able to confirm other PHOTO WAS contains no visual photos coming from signage, architecture landscape and landmarks in their CAPTURED? clues to investigate the scene but there and clothing to landmarks using field of vision, which is no satellite or street establish a broad mapping tools and matched those shown view imagery available geographical region have confirmed the on online maps to confirm the location lat/long coordinates 4. DO YOU KNOW It was sent to us We checked the The social time stamp We confirmed It contains EXIF WHEN THE anonymously and timestamp on the shows it was that the weather data that, combined PHOTO WAS there is no EXIF social network to uploaded shortly after conditions and any with other checks, CAPTURED? data available see when it was first the event occurred shadows visible in confirms when it shared online but we and it features visual the image correlate was taken have no EXIF data evidence that with the time, date confirming when it correlates with other and location given was taken eyewitness reports by the source 5. DO YOU KNOW We do not know who The social media Wider online searches Searches of the The photographer WHY THE PHOTO took the photo so we account was created of the uploader’s real uploader’s social confirmed the WAS CAPTURED? can’t ascertain what very recently and/or name reveals that they media activity leading circumstances their motivations social searches reveal are connected with up to the event surrounding might have been the uploader rarely an activist or advocacy confirm their reasons the photo posts online so there organisation but there for capturing the is little evidence to is no additional photo, i.e. holiday- confirm their information to know maker, journalist, movements or their motivation in works locally motivations this case VISUAL VERIFICATION GUIDE: VIDEOS NO YES 1.