How to verify a viral image

Before you start: slow down

Viral images spread because they make people feel something fast. That's exactly when to slow down. Save a copy of the image and the link where you saw it, and note who shared it and when. Don't reshare it while you check, not even to ask "is this real?", because that spreads it too.

Step 1: find the source

Trace the image back through reposts to the first person who posted it. Then look at that account: how old it is, what else it posts, and whether it has any connection to the place or event in the picture.

Photos from news agencies and working photographers usually come with a name, a place and a date. If the first poster is reachable, ask them for the original file and how they took it. People who took a photo can usually answer that easily.

• Who posted it first, and when?
• Does the account have a history that fits, or did it appear last week?
• Is there a photographer, agency or outlet credited anywhere?
• Has anyone who was there posted their own pictures of the same moment?

Step 2: reverse image search

Search the image on at least two reverse image search engines. The most common result for a viral photo isn't a fake at all: it's an older genuine photo, recycled with a new caption. An earlier copy from a different year or country ends the question quickly.

Crop to distinctive details (a sign, a building, a face) and search those too. For a face swap, search can turn up the original photo with a different face.

How to reverse image search

Step 3: check the where

If the caption names a place, test it. Look for signs and shopfronts, the language and script they're written in, road markings, number plates, landmarks, mountains and coastlines. Compare them with maps, street-level imagery and satellite views. If the picture can't be matched to the place it claims to show, that's a finding in itself.

Step 4: check the when

Check whether the weather on the claimed date matches the sky in the photo, and whether the season fits the trees, the clothes and the light. Long shadows mean low sun, so early morning or late afternoon. Look for other photos and videos of the same event from that day. File metadata can help if you have the original, but most platforms strip it.

Step 5: check for AI and edits

Look for Content Credentials with a free verify tool. They're rare on viral images, because platforms strip them, but they're direct evidence when present. Look closely at hands, text, reflections, shadows and the edges of faces.

Then run the best copy you have through a detector. Checkobot runs whole-image analysis on every picture and face analysis on the largest face, reads Content Credentials, and tells you AI or No AI detected, which detector fired, and why. Upload the file or paste a link to it. Images under 256 pixels on the short side, or heavily compressed ones, are refused rather than guessed at. That happens a lot with forwards of forwards, so find a better copy first.

Is this image AI

Step 6: check the claim, not just the photo

A genuine photo with a false caption misleads just as well as a fake one, and it's far easier to make. Ask whether the image actually shows what the caption says: the right people, the right place, the right moment. Crowd sizes, damage and who did what are where captions most often stretch the truth.

Writing up what you found

• Say what you checked and what you found, step by step, with links.
• Say what you couldn't confirm. "We couldn't verify where this came from" is an honest result.
• Describe a detector result as a signal: "Checkobot flagged it as AI; the face analysis fired", not "proven fake".
• No AI detected isn't confirmation. Don't write "verified real" on the strength of a detector alone.
• Keep it about the image. Don't call the people in it fakes; they may not even know it exists.
• Credit the original photographer if you found them.

Questions