Identifying whether or not information on the internet is accurate isn’t exactly a piece of cake but it also isn’t impossible.
Over the week, I found 10 posts, 6 of which are factual and 4 are opinions, on X about the Israel-Hamas conflict, and decided to look into them. Here are 2 methods I used to fact-check information on X.
Cross-checking
Cross-checking is one of the most common methods used to indicate whether a piece of information is accurate.
I found 5 posts by Rappler, GMA News, ABC News, BBC News, and Agence France-Presse. Although the reports were made by credible news outlets, I took no chances and cross-checked the information cited above. I learned that other credible news outlets reported the same information and solid proofs supported these reports, which concludes that the reports are factual.
Making Use of Online Verification Tools
Online verification tools are useful resources used by journalists to fact-check information they find online. One verification toolbox I’ve found useful is InVID-WeVerify, which allowed me to perform a reverse image search on this X post. Here’s how I did it:
- I downloaded the extension here.
- After downloading the extension, I opened the toolbox and went to Keyframes under Video in Tools.
3. Once I reached the Keyframes page, I pasted the link to the post on the “Insert the video URL” bar, clicked submit, and waited for the results.
4. Once the results came out, I clicked on the frame/s that I wanted to do an image search on.
5. After clicking one of the frames, I identified the specific location where the video took place, which is Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
I, then, searched up the keywords “Dam Square” and “Palestine” on X and found posts about the rally supporting Palestine that indeed existed and took place in the Netherlands.
I also found posts made by a journalist of Al Jazeera English doing live coverage of the rally while it was occurring.
Fact-checking may take a while, but it’s worth it if it means knowing the truth. I hope this article helped you realize how doable fact-checking is!
For a broader view of the 10 posts I found, click here.