Over the past few days, Twitter has tagged as “manipulated” a video showing United States (US) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supposedly forgetting which state he’s in while addressing a crowd.
Biden’s “hello, Minnesota” greeting contrasted with prominent signage reading “Tampa, Florida” and “Text FL to 30330”.
A fact check by the Associated Press (AP) confirmed the signs were added digitally and the original footage was indeed from a Minnesota rally. But by the time the misleading video was removed it already had more than one million views, The Guardian reported.
If you use social media, the chances are you see (and forward) some of the more than 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video that are shared daily. When faced with such a glut of content, how can we know what’s real and what’s not?
While one part of the solution is increased use of content verification tools, it’s equally important we all boost our digital media literacy. Ultimately, one of the best lines of defence — and the only one you can control — is you.
Misinformation (when you accidentally share false content) and disinformation (when you intentionally share it) in any medium can erode trust in civil institutions such as news organisations, coalitions and social movements. However, fake photos and videos are often the most potent.
For those with a vested political interest, creating, sharing and/or editing false images can distract, confuse and manipulate viewers to sow discord and uncertainty (especially in already polarised environments). Posters and platforms can also make money from the sharing of fake, sensationalist content.
Only 11-25% of journalists globally use social media content verification tools, according to the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ).
Consider this photo of rights champion Martin Luther King Jr:
This altered image clones part of the background over King Jr’s finger, so it looks like he’s flipping off the camera. It has been shared as genuine on Twitter, Reddit and white supremacist websites.
In the original 1964 photo, King flashed the “V for victory” sign after learning the US Senate had passed the civil rights bill.
Beyond adding or removing elements, there’s a whole category of photo manipulation in which images are fused together.
Earlier this year, a photo of an armed man was photoshopped by Fox News, which overlaid the man onto other scenes without disclosing the edits, the Seattle Times reported.
Similarly, the image below was shared thousands of times on social media in January, during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires. The AFP’s fact check confirmed it is not authentic and is actually a combination of several separate photos.
Cropping can greatly alter the context of a photo, too.
We saw this in 2017, when a US government employee edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger, according to The Guardian. The staffer cropped out the empty space “where the crowd ended” for a set of pictures for Trump.
Opposition parties in Pakistan have also time and again been accused of using these tactics.
A historical example of another technique — using colour adjustment tools — is when in 1994 Time magazine’s cover considerably “darkened” sportsman and murder accused OJ Simpson in his police mugshot.
This added fuel to a case already plagued by racial tension, to which the magazine said that “no racial implication was intended by Time or by the artist”.
Follow this link to fact check like a pro.
Data Compiled By: The Conversation
