At Reported.ly, we look at videos frequently, especially those from citizens. We treat these videos as tips and always strive to verify them through our own process and help from the community.
Here, managing editor Malachy Browne walks you through how he verified videos of an airstrike in Syria.
1/ A few tweets about the process of verifying details of air strike on #Ghouta
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
2/ @AP alerts 32 killed in Damascus according to activists. Get Arabic for Damascus from Wikipedia. Search Twitter YouTube to find more. — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
3/ Several “scraped” pictures and videos are shared with captions like “شام ريف دمشق حمورية حرائق ودمار جراء قصف للطيران الحربي 23 1 2015 “
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
4/ Isolate the locale in Damascus. Tip: Syrian uploaders often use nomenclature like Region – town – description – date — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
5/ Non-Arabic speakers, use G Translate to identify the locale (Hamoryeh mistranslates as “pivotal”). Listen to it pic.twitter.com/a0ciWCfo77
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
6/ Search again across social platforms for the locale in Arabic or local language (Put yourself in the uploader’s shoes). — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
7/ Date-sort results to identify 1st uploads. YouTube is platform of choice for most Syrians. Note several scrapes. pic.twitter.com/DiNJvxPYwx
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
8/ Tip: @Storyful‘s multi-search Chrome extension is a great time-saving tool to filter social. Learn how to use it pic.twitter.com/FHuJDu359n — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
9/ Look at the first videos uploaded matching your search, the times they were uploaded. Examine the uploader history – consistent?
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
10/ In this case, several videos by local eyewitnesses showed the carnage. See @reportedly‘s timeline (Graphic images) — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
Location of Hamoryeh attack confirmed (from videos) as this central junction beside mosque & cemetery #Syria pic.twitter.com/3gIdGS7Yr5
— reported.ly (@reportedly) enero 23, 2015
12/ Search Google Maps for حمورية, Damascus – it takes you there. Compare the distinctive features (water tower) with your videos & match — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
13/ Search Facebook and Twitter again for local sources/pages. Again, look for the earliest mentions of the event. Engage w ppl.
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
14/ Searching Facebook pages with English placenames often works for MENA, tho’ there can be several translations: Hamouria, Hamoryeh etc — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
15/ To deep dive, use other local terms, e.g. the mosque. Ppl from Hamoryeh might assume followers know their home & instead use local ref
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
16/ Confirm/corroborate to the greatest extent the date, location of the event, and the source of the information. Publish transparently. — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
17/ All this and much more incl. case studies in @ejcnet‘s http://t.co/voyaK0JCuV edited by @CraigSilverman
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
18/ Finally, recognise when to break from reporting graphic content. You have a responsibility to the story, but also to yourself — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) enero 23, 2015
Second case study — verifying video of deadly rocket attack on Kramatorsk
1. Some of the steps taken to verify this video of today’s deadly rocket attack on Kramatorsk airport in #Ukraine https://t.co/TgoXQlJCuj
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
2. Title is simply Kramatorsk! (in Russian). The YouTube user is active, it’s a personal account, no ‘scraped’ videos pic.twitter.com/6X9r8BsSNc — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
3. The themes of a linked blog and G+ page match the personal videos uploaded to the YouTube account, and the languages match
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
4. The Google Plus page lists the person as living in Kramatorsk, and gives a name. pic.twitter.com/eHcAxOdUe0 — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
5. Source looks OK. Now location. Water tower, angled road, distinct red-roofed building, apartment block, low-rises pic.twitter.com/LmUhBcPW28
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
6. Journalist @ChristopherJM was nearby and described what appeared to be an attack on the airport pic.twitter.com/UhiE4974iv — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
7. Google maps for #Kramatorsk clearly shows the airport. Zoom and open geo-located photos (highlighted) pic.twitter.com/4Z4YqwzVlz
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
8. This geo-located photo shows the same water tower, high rise in the backdrop. pic.twitter.com/gobWoqieYM — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
9. The chimney may no longer exist, or be obscured from the camera’s angle by the high-rises suggesting camera location at hard right angle.
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
10. Closer look: camera position (red), red-brick house & water tower (yellow), rocket strikes (blue) match video pic.twitter.com/EWXD3s3ybZ — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
11. How do we know it’s today? Search Kramatorsk in English, Russian on VK, YouTube, Twitter. Lots corroborates it https://t.co/0uXuTKdBGC
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
12. Specifically, this vid, initially uploaded by VK user in Kramatorsk, similarly verified https://t.co/HMpgwgkWle pic.twitter.com/ocVaUdx0tC — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 10, 2015
Third Case Study — ‘bloodied’ streets of Duma after four-day siege
Many of you will have been struck today by this chilling photo described as #Duma, #Syria pic.twitter.com/H9NFTAXoFW — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
It’s shared with hashtag #دوما_تباد (#Douma_Exterminated) after Duma was pummelled this week, reportedly killing 143 http://t.co/3hLknUnZ7g
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
But is the photo too bad to be true? I can’t say, because I wasn’t there, but here are the steps I took to check. — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
First, run a Google Image Search (install the extension on Chrome). There were no old results this am > it may be new pic.twitter.com/tJx2gkz2MQ
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Was it raining in Duma overnight? Knowledge engine @wolframalphaUK says it was yesterday, similar conditions today pic.twitter.com/FhgMjMzMn5 — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Any corroborating photos? Search @Topsy for instance of دوما (Duma), filter for photos posted today, sort by oldest
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Photos show bloody streets from different angles, same distinctive blue building & weather. And a distinctive mosque. pic.twitter.com/cO8EqcVyap — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Zoom in on Duma via @googlemaps, show geo-located photos. They match the mosque in shared photos pic.twitter.com/aIFqb1eRlN
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Searching @YouTube for دوما, no matching videos today, but several scraped (duplicated) videos of Duma use this logo pic.twitter.com/DTUO7Dy97S — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Search @facebook for دوما shows several local media activist pages, one has same logo. Scroll through timeline. pic.twitter.com/IiIbe87qX0
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
The same photo is shared, and it’s attributed to a person. Search Facebook again for this person دوما_تباد# pic.twitter.com/NXCqMfcGnd — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Source’s Facebook URL is douma1985. This and groups, history, friends suggest proximity to Duma. He also reported bloody streets early am
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
The source was connected with a friend of mine on Facebook. I enquired about douma1985, my friend confirmed his association with Duma — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
My friend also referred me to a Syrian photographer working with @ReutersPhotos in the area to confirm date and location. I wasn’t able to.
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
The weight of corroborating evidence from disparate sources suggests on balance that photo is legit. Just some of background checks we do — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Finally, if interested in the absolute horror Assad inflicts on “his” people, watch this on barrel bombs (graphic) https://t.co/LymxQWVH1r
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 12, 2015
Malachy Browne made contact with the photographer working with Reuters based in Duma (his details were geolocated).
Update: @Reuters journo in Duma confirms photo was taken this week. He saw it: says it is rain, blood *and paint* from destroyed market shop — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 13, 2015
Challenged about suspicions the photo was staged, he was steadfast. “There is no conditions in this war to stage like this pictures”
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 13, 2015
As a comparison, he sent these photos – “all blood” from a neighbour’s house – dated 24 Aug 2012 pic.twitter.com/GSUZqEMD7x — Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) febrero 13, 2015
Malachy Browne from Reported.ly first published this on Jan 23, 2015 at https://firstlook.org/reportedly/2015/01/23/pocket-guide-verifying-details-video/. We have reproduced it here as part of The First Draft collection.