Our world right now is both physical and digital. Everything that we face in the real world has a digital manifestation on the Internet.
The Internet is a blessing and a curse. Information found here can often be obscured by a fog of confusion and lack of verification. Most of us do not know what to believe when we come across questionable content.
Here’s how you can check for yourself whether that picture your friend inboxed you or you have been seeing online is real or a hoax.
Verifying photos
Google reverse image search can be used to track, verify and uncover related information about a particular image. To use this tool:
Go to image.google.com
You can search by image URL or upload directly.
Click search, and you will get sites and articles that include that image and similar images. From there, you can verify the legitimacy of the picture by sorting through reputable news outlets.
For a more refined search, go to “Tools” (right below the search bar) and click on “Time.” You can set the time from anywhere between past hour to past one year, or use a custom range to go even further back in time.
