Fake News: 12 tools for sifting the truth
“Photos are incredibly powerful. They influence how we see the world. They even influence our memory of things. If we can’t tell the fake ones from the real ones, the fakes are going to be powerful, too.” Sophie J Nightingale, Cognitive psychology researcher.
A staggering nine out of ten Kenyans say that they saw some form of “fake news” in the run up to 2017 general elections. That’s according to a recent study carried out by Portland and GeoPoll, which polled 2,000 people from around the country on what they’ve read online.
From well-known outlets for propaganda, to more insidious and harder to spot Twitter campaigns, to straightforward wishful thinking, separating fact from fiction is going to be even more important as the country enters another two months of fractious campaigning.
Which is why Philip Ogola was the perfect speaker to invite to talk to the Hacks/Hackers Nairobi community recently. Ogola describes himself as a “digital humanitarian”, and is a global authority on the use of social media for social good. As a specialist in modern communication tools, he constantly runs into the issue of fighting misinformation online — which has an ugly habit of rearing its head over and over again.
“Social media doesn’t replace journalism. It gives news a longer shelf life.” Philip Ogola
Ogola gave his audience a list of twelve tools which he says he uses for spotting and stopping untruths online.
How do you audit a hashtag as a journalist?
Most times finding the specific information you need as a journalist, means filtering out what isn’t useful. Using tools that modify the search process or clear out the noise is a powerful way to refine your search and get better and faster results.
1) Trends24
Using the Trends24 timeline view, you can keep hourly tabs on the latest Twitter trending topics globally and in every country.
2) Ctrlq.org/first
It’s important to verify the source as well as the content of information shared online before you publish a story. Using search keywords, or even a link, Ctrlq.org/first is able to identify the very first tweet on a given hashtag.
3) Twazzup
Twazzup provides the most popular tweets, a list of the people whose tweets began the trend your keyword(s) is creating, photos related to your keyword search, the most Popular links and ten keywords Associated with Your Search.
4) Keyhole
Keyhole’s real-time dashboard shows how many people posted with your hashtag, along with the number of Retweets, Likes and Impressions your campaign is generating. Keyhole also tracks the most influential people engaging with your brand.
Auditing photos found online
These tools enable you to audit photos online. Knowing all the places a photo has been used or finding images that are similar to it can help you get the right visuals for your story. For photojournalists, Reverse Image Search shows you where else your image has shown up online.
5) Fotoforensics
Fotoforensics uses Error Level Analysis (ELA) to help visualize different part of images which have undergone different compression. Its principle is very simple, ELA shows the absolute difference between the image under analysis and its recompressed version as JPEG.
6) TinEye
TinEye provides image search and recognition as a service. It is a useful tool for searching where an image has been used before.
7) Google image reverse search
To use Google to find out how images are being used online:
- Right click on your image and select “Search Google for this Image.”
- Or go to images.google.com, click on the camera icon, and either upload the image from your computer, or input the image url to search for that image.
8) Exifdata
This tool provides metadata on photos. EXIF is short for Exchangeable Image File, a format that is a standard for storing interchange information in digital photography image files using JPEG compression. Almost all digital cameras use the EXIF annotation, storing information on the image such as shutter speed, exposure compensation, F number, what metering system was used, if a flash was used, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, whitebalance, auxiliary lenses that were used and resolution. Some images may even store GPS information so you can easily see where the images were taken.
9) The Amnesty YouTube Dataviewer
This tool enables you to enter the URL of a YouTube video and automatically extract the correct upload time and all thumbnails associated with the video. The video upload time and thumbnails, which are difficult to identify on YouTube are essential when verifying a YouTube video.The upload time which is not clearly depicted on the video page is critical in helping determine the origin of a video.The thumbnails are useful because you can plug them into a reverse image search tool such as Google Image or TinEye and see where else online these images appear.
Resource Hubs
As well as individual tools, Ogola points in the direction of collections of useful resources.
10) Bellingcat Resources
Bellingcat uses open source and social media investigation to investigate a variety of subjects being fought across the world by bringing together contributors who specialise in open source and social media investigation, and creating guides and case studies so others may learn to do the same.
11) The Verification Handbook
Authored by leading journalists from the BBC, Storyful, ABC, Digital First Media and other verification experts, the Verification Handbook is a resource for journalists. It provides the tools, techniques and step-by-step guidelines for how to deal with user-generated content during emergencies.
12) Security in a box
Security in-a-box was first created in 2009 by Front Line Defenders and Tactical Technology Collective, along with a global network of thousands of activists, trainers and digital security experts to meet the digital security and privacy needs of human rights defenders. Security in a box provides excellent guides covering the basic principles on how to use social networking platforms and mobile phones, step-by-step instructions to help you install and use the most essential digital security software and services while the as well as tailored advice on tools and tactics that are relevant to the needs of different communities.
And…
We’ll have more information, tips and tricks on these and other resources in the StoryLab Academy courses, available soon.
The worlds of hackers and journalists are coming together, as reporting goes digital and Internet companies become media empires.
Journalists call themselves “hacks,” someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code.
Hacker-journalists try and bridge the two worlds. Hacks/Hackers Africa aims to bring all these people together — those who are working to help people make sense of our world. It’s for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories. In the age of information overload and collapse of traditional business models for legacy media, their work has become even more crucial.
Code for Africa, the continent’s largest #OpenData and civic technology initiative, recognises this and is spearheading the establishment of a network of HacksHackers chapters across Africa to help bring together pioneers for collaborative projects and new ventures.
Follow Hacks/Hackers Africa on Twitter and Facebook and join the Hacks/Hackers community group today.
