How to avoid being deceived by fake news and videos? Google biometric verification tips

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I believe you often see friends reposting many videos or news URLs through Facebook or LINE, but are these messages true or false? Now you can directly retouch or cut just using your mobile phone -of-the-film-clips-app-10-app-to-make-the-movie-more-eye-sucking), it is not difficult to add information to the content, but this also caused everyone’s confusion-is this video credible?

Google News Lab Workshop

In order to solve this doubt, “Content Hacker” was invited to participate in the “[Google News Lab] (https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/training/) Taiwan Workshop” event organized by Google on the afternoon of March 21. During the meeting, Google invited Taiwanese media to actually use [Google Search] (https://www.google.com/) and Google Maps and other tools to conduct real “肉search” practice, learn to trace the sources of news and videos, and distinguish authenticity.

In this workshop, Google News Lab invited partner Storyful head of the company’s Australian office Esther Chan served as a lecturer and led the guests to act like Detective Conan and learn how to use various tools to check videos and news. In the following description, Baixiong will list the questions first and then the methods. Please check it yourself first and then compare the differences in methods.

Before starting the formal experiment, Esther Chan summarized several key points regarding online false information:

What is disinformation?

• Rumors: propaganda that is intentionally misleading, especially by a government organization to competitors or the media.

• Misinformation: Inaccurate information, spread by false information.

Seven types of disinformation:

• Satire/Parody: No harm is intended, but there is an element of fooling.

• Wrong association: The image or title does not match the content.

• Misleading: Error messages that are intentionally misleading.

• False scenario: The content is real and the scene is false.

*Impersonation: Impersonating the source of a message.

• Manipulated content: Manipulation of real content or images with intent to deceive.

*Fake: Content that is 100% false and intended to deceive or cause harm.

Five practical test questions

Then, Esther officially began to test the news checking skills of the guests on site.

Basic skills of writing news: tracking the source of information and determining the authenticity

The first step in implementing news meat search is to identify news source.

Esther showed the guests present a picture of the news homepage of the American News [abc News] (http://abcnews.go.com/) website and asked everyone to check it. You can try to check the picture below first to see if there is anything wrong.

[](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfJ6nI9YuAyTrVrdbzLE9JgiSDGT7xz0i40kM9vEQAvMABZ724qCofv gk7qPah6Ck1GM1ukYxGzii_RBzlvEEpkzDHtBHuajVDOt1qzatHtOtJS0syefbQ3BSvtUokzUM6oN0SxsvbkK-N/s1600/IMG_20180321_143041.jpg)

Check results─this is a fake website:

• The website address is fake abcnews.com.co, and the correct official website address is abcnews.go.com.

• There is a difference between the abc News logo on the website and the logo on the official website. The fake logo has a larger black circle and incorrect fonts.

The second level is to check the authenticity of online videos. Esther showed a video of Eagle Catching Snake on YouTube to test how the audience can identify the authenticity of the video. You can watch the video below and decide for yourself whether this video is real or fake:

Guests at the press conference examined the video together and listed the following doubts:

• The eagle’s wings beat unnaturally.

• The snake appears in a different location after being dropped (this is what White Bear found).

• The snake may have been post-produced using 3D technology, but it does not exist originally.

Esther’s answer is to suggest that you use Slow Motion Freeze to analyze step by step and find out various unreasonable things in the video. In addition to the doubts listed by the media, Storyful’s editor also found out that the direction of the characters’ fingers in the video was different from the direction of the eagle’s flight, and that the sausage looked unnatural in the initial shooting.

In the comments below the video, there were also responses from netizens from all over the world, listing out one by one what seemed unreasonable in the video. In addition, the YouTube account only posted this video and did not upload other videos at all, which is also suspicious.

Later, Storyful editors comprehensively determined that this was a fake video with the purpose of defrauding click-through rates. In fact, this fake video has been clicked nearly 2 million times, which has already reached the standard of profit sharing with YouTube.

Next, Esther asked 5 questions, checking three key points such as the source, location and time of the video. White Bear will write down his own method of searching for meat, but you can also just look at the questions and try it out first, and then check to see if you have found relevant information.

Test 1: Live video of the terrorist attacks in Paris, France

Question: Check the authenticity of the following video. Is it shot by the person who posted it? And find out the contact information of the poster.

White bear solution:

2. Since the content of this instagram video is mainly in French with a small amount of English, Google Translate was used to translate part of the content. After translation, it was found that the original PO name was Seb Snow. He told his friends from the beginning that he was fine, and most of the messages were greetings. Therefore, the video must have been shot live by Seb Snow.

3. Click on Seb Snow’s personal introduction on Instagram and find out that he is a French UI designer.

4. Someone directly requested to authorize the video in the Instagram message box, but the original PO did not respond directly.

5. Use Google to search and find that Seb Snow also has a Pinterest account and a Twitter account, but he does not seem to be using Twitter, so you may consider trying to contact him through Pinterest.

Esther’s solution:

• Esther also discovered that Seb Snow has a SoundCloud account, and saw that Sub Snow ignored the authorization request on Instagram to leave messages, so she sent a private message to Sub Snow from SoundCloud, and then made a request for authorization to repost the video, and only then did she get permission from Seb Snow to authorize the reposting of the video.

Quiz 2: Video of American Factory Fires

Question: Check whether the following video was shot by the original poster and find out the contact information.

White bear solution: 2. From the YouTube message, we found that the original author is Erik Hanson, and the location may be Kenner Louisiana, so use Google and Facebook to search for Erik Hanson Kenner Louisiana.

4. Find Erik Hanson account on Facebook. The profile also indicates that he lives in Kenner, Louisiana. However, he did not disclose his account and was afraid that it would be too late to contact him for verification.

5. Search “erik hanson kenner louisiana” on Google and find several [contact numbers] (https://www.whitepages.com/name/Eric-Hanson/LA) that may be Erik Hanson. You can try to contact him by phone.

Other guest solutions:

• Use the photo of Erik Hanson and his wife on Facebook to search for [wedding photos] of him and his wife (https://www.theknot.com/us/madeline-gabb-and-erik-hanson-jun-2017), and then find the contact information of his wife Madeline Gabb.

Esther’s solution:

• Directly request to add Erik Hanson as a friend on Facebook, submit a video authorization request, and obtain approval.

Quiz 3: Taiwanese Pokémon catching video

Question: Where are the locations in the following videos?

White bear solution:

2. Actually, there is no need to look for it. As soon as I saw the video, I immediately remembered that it was the intersection in front of Xinbeitou MRT Station. I have passed by it many times before and I still have an impression of the local street scene. Is this considered cheating?

3. Use Google Maps search [MRT Xinbeitou Station](https://www.google.com.tw/maps/place/%E6%96%B0%E5%8C%97%E6%8A%95/@25.1370983,121.5026438,18z/data=!4m8!1m2!2m1 !1z5o236YGL5paw5YyX5oqV56uZ!3m4!1s0x3442ae4ff841f8f1:0x8d1332f3020cefbe!8m2!3d25.1369429!4d121.5026492?hl=zh-TW), confirm the location is correct through the Street View function.

Esther’s solution:

• Look for a few specific store signs in the video, but not the too common 7-ELEVEN or McDonald’s. Then use Google to search the store name to find the address. Enter Google Maps to search for a specific store, compare it with Street View, and then use the relative location of a convenience store or fast food restaurant to check whether the location is correct.

• At the same time, please pay attention to the time of the video. You can use the historical street view function in Google Maps Street View to compare street views with similar dates to avoid errors.

Quiz 4: Hualien Earthquake Disaster Video

Topic: Find the disaster location from the video.

White bear solution:

2. Through the name of the signboard at the entrance of [Farglory Hotel] (http://www.farglory-hotel.com.tw/) that I saw in the second half of the video, I searched on Google and found that it is the Farglory Yuelai Hotel in Hualien.

3. Use Google Check the Maps Street View function and it is indeed [Farglory Yuelai Hotel](https://www.google.com.tw/maps/place/%E8%8A%B1%E8%93%AE%E9%81%A0%E9%9B%84%E6%82%85%E4%BE%86%E5%A4%A7%E9%A3%AF%E5%BA% 97/@23.908202,121.5944603,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m7!3m6!1s0x3468a0ed6cdaa9 c9:0xd5a95c319c953b70!5m1!1s2018-03-29!8m2!3d23.908202!4d121.596649) That’s right.

Quiz 5: The exact date of the Australian kidnapping case

Question: Find the actual date and time of the following video.

White bear solution:

2. There is a record of date and time in the upper left corner of the video, which indicates that the incident occurred around 19:11 on June 5, 2017. But it turned out to be wrong.

Esther’s solution:

• You may be deceived by just looking at the time on the video. The camera may be adjusted to an incorrect date and time intentionally or accidentally, so multiple verifications are required.

• At the beginning of the video, someone in the car was dictating what happened around 6 p.m.

Practical message verification tool

Finally, Esther also listed her commonly used information verification tools for your reference:

• Discover news tools: Tweetdeck, Facebook Signal, CrowdTangle, Facebook LiveMap, Snap Map, Picodash, Ban.jo (paid service), Dataminr (paid service).

• News tracking tools: Newswhip, BuzzSumo, Crowdtangle.

• Map tools: Google Maps, Bing Maps, Wikimapia.

• Collaborative working tools: G Suite, Slack, Meedan Checkdesk.

• Data verification tools: Amnesty YouTube Dataviewer, TinEye, Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer.

This is the first time White Bear has practiced news search, and it feels very fresh. I believe that when you create content, you often need to check from multiple parties. It is recommended that everyone make good use of these recommended tools and steps to verify the source, location, time and other factors of the message one by one, and obtain authorization from the original author, so that there will be no regrets in reposting wrong messages that cause a sensation.

★ How to enhance your visibility and influence through diversified management? Please attend the March special session of Vista Reading Club: “[The Era of Resumption of Business is Coming] (https://www.accupass.com/event/1803140753116515393830)”

★ How to learn how to make presentations and use them for content marketing at the same time? Please sign up now for the Content Hacking Lecture Series (CHL6): How to use presentations for content marketing[Registration in progress]

★ How to produce high-quality and attractive content? Please don’t miss the online course “[Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands] (https://content.tw/power)”

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