A Beginner’s Guide to Fact-Checking of Images and Misinformation

A Beginner’s Guide to Fact-Checking Images Online

How to fact-check images online

Fact-Checking requires special skills. It involves a process. That is, it is systematic and you have to be deliberate in finding out the facts to confirm or debunk a claim. A claim can come in form of a video, text, images and so on.

False claims could be misinformation or disinformation deliberately orchestrated, composed to suit an agenda. It could be wrong attribution, wrong caption to a genuine photo or even outright fabrication.

However, for this section, we will look at claims that come in form of images. The images could be distorted to misrepresent an issue. It could as well be an old image shared to depict a new reality but from a different context.

Whichever form an image is presented on the internet you might be able to verify it with the aid of tools for image fact-checking such as are Google Reverse Image Search, Tin Eye, InVid, Yandex and so on.

This how to fact-check images  tutorial will look at:

1. Good reverse image search
2. TinEye

A)  Google Reverse Image Search 

1. Go to images.google.com on any browser of your choice.
2. For mobile request for a desktop view by clicking and selecting via the three dots.
3. From the displayed page, click on the image icon in the search box.
4. Select an option to paste the Url of the image you want to search or the option to upload the image.
5. On the drop down menu, paste web link to the photo source or upload the image from your device and lick the Search by Image button
6. The next web view will display your search result, revealing a variety of related images and websites it has appeared with dates.
7. You can streamline your searches  via variables like time, Date, size, visually similar etc.

Labnol/reverse

Another way to use Google Reverse Image Search  is through  labnol.org/reverse.

1. On any web browser of choice, visit www.labnol.org/reverse.
2. Scroll downward and click on the Upload Image button.
3. Select the image which must have been downloaded on your device or use the Take Photo option.
4. Click the Use or Open button.
5. Next, click the Show Matching Images button.
6. The next page shows you the similar pictures while a little scroll downward reveals where the pictures have previously appeared on the internet including the various sizes it was adjusted.

B)  Tin Eye 

The Tin Eye is another reliable image search tool. It can be handy for a Fact-Checker who is interested in verifying picture and possibly document sources. It provides the date a picture first appeared on the internet, the website where the image was used as well as the image dimensions and sizes.

An interesting quality of the tool is that it gives the user an option of comparing the uploaded picture with the newly searched image through its compare button.

The button becomes active once the mouse cursor is placed on the searched images.

The simple steps to use the Tin Eye technology are:

1. Visit web browser of choice
2. Type www.tineye.com in the browser
3. Provide the image Url or website link in the search button of the Reverse Image Search page
4. Click the search icon
5. On the contrary, if you have the image already saved on your device, select the upload button which is a Circled Up Arrow Symbol
6. Select the picture source in the dialogue box
7. Click the open button then the next page shows you the search result

Fake News & Misinformation: How to Spot and Verify

The proliferation of news sources and satire, as well as the ease and speed of social media — combined with readers’ short attention spans and tendency to just read the headlines make it easy for readers to fall for fake news. Some websites have taken on the mission of fact-checking rumors, health claims, and political claims — particularly those that show up often in social media. 

• Duke Reporter’s Lab: Fact Checking News and Global Fact Checking SitesDisplays interactive world map. The Reporters’ Lab explores new forms of journalism, including fact-checking, which is growing around the world, empowering democracies and holding governments accountable (Stanford School of Public Policy).
• FactCheck.orgA Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Also includes SciCheck for science claims.
• FlackCheck.orgHeadquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is the political literacy companion site to the award-winning FactCheck.org. The site provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular. Video resources point out deception and incivility in political rhetoric.
• Full Fact, based in UKBad information ruins lives. We’re a team of independent fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm it does. See: https://fullfact.org/about/
• Ground News: News Comparison PlatformDownload the app for Android, iOS, or use the web version.more…
• How to Fact-Check Images with GoogleA quick video demo of how Google’s reverse image search tool can be used to fact-check and research images.
• Lead StoriesEstablished in 2015, Lead Stories intentionally seeks out viral stories using software and debunks them as fast as possible.
• Media Bias / Fact CheckMBFC News is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.
• Media Smarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
• Misinformation and Disinformation: A Guide for Protecting YourselfWritten By: Security.org Team | Published: August 16, 2021 — “Misinformation and disinformation (MDI) presents a challenge to American and other democracies. In this guide, you’ll learn what MDI is, and how to protect yourself, your children, and your loved ones. In addition, we provide resources on fact-checking, prevention and reporting misinformation.”
• The News Literacy Project
• NPR Politics Fact Check
• PolitiFactWinner of the Pulitzer Prize. PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida. PolitiFact staffers research statements and rate their accuracy on the Truth-O-Meter, from True to False. The most ridiculous falsehoods get the lowest rating, Pants on Fire.
• Rumor vs.Reality Cards, Reality Team
• SnopesFounded by David Mikkelson, a project begun in 1994 as an expression of his interest in researching urban legends that has since grown into the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet, one widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and laypersons alike as one of the world’s essential resources. Read about methodology and rating system at http://www.snopes.com/about-snopes/
• Turn Students into Fact-Finding Web DetectivesCommon Sense Education.
• The Washington Post’s Fact Checker
• What to Expect: Elections, Pen AmericaDisinformation threatens our democracy. Here’s what to expect when you’re electing—and how to fight back against misleading information.

Fact checking: Science and Medicine

• Retraction WatchReports on retractions of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
• SciCheckFactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.

Fake Fact Checking and Fake News Sites

“Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news) deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation — using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect” (Wikipedia). 

The proliferation of news sources and satire, as well as the ease and speed of social media — combined with readers’ short attention spans and tendency to just read the headlines make it easy for readers to fall for fake news. (“Everyone can be duped by fake news, experts say as satire sites multiply“).

• List of fake news sites, Wikipedia
• Snopes’ Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax PurveyorsSnopes.com’s updated guide to the internet’s clickbaiting, news-faking, social media exploiting dark side.

Investigate Quotes

• “A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes” – did Mark Twain say this?Quote Investigator
• The Quote Investigator: Exploring the Origins of Quotations (blog)This blog records the investigatory work of Garson O’Toole who diligently seeks the truth about quotations. Who really said what? This question often cannot be answered with complete finality, but approximate solutions can be iteratively improved over time.
• Quotes Uncovered: How Lies Travel
• That Wasn’t Mark Twain: How a Misquotation Is BornNiraj Chokshi. New York Times, April 26, 2017.

How search engines spread misinformation

• Filter Bubble, Wikipedia“A filter bubble is a state of intellectual isolation that can result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior and search history.”
• The Miseducation of Dylann RoofSouthern Poverty Law Center, January 17, 2017
• Google search algorithms are not impartial. They can be biased, just like their designers
• How Google’s search algorithm spreads false information with a rightwing bias
• How Google is tackling fake news, and why it should not do it aloneSearch Engine Land, Nov. 30, 2016. Columnist Ian Bowden illustrates some ways the search giant can tackle — and already is tackling — this problem.
• Fighting Fake News With SEO (Search Engine Optimization)Offers suggestions for how search engines can help users separate facts from “alternative facts.”

New Developments

• The lessons of Squash, the first automated fact-checking platformArticle by Bill Adair from the Poynter Institute, June 16, 2021.

Credit: https://factcheckhub.com/

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