Video Verification: Here's How You Can Fact-Check Viral Videos

Script & Editorial Inputs: Kritika Goel & Abhilash Mallick

Camera: Athar Rather

Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan

Almost every day we come across videos on social media and receive them on WhatsApp, but how often do we verify if the message with which the video is being circulated is true or not?

In recent times, with an exponential increase in the circulation of fake news, 214 percent to be precise, verification has become more important that ever.

In this episode of 'Verify Kiya Kya?', we will tell you about the tools that you can use to verify videos online.

InVID Extension – First Step Towards Verification

First things first, download the InVID Google Chrome extension.

How do you do that?

Go to Google Chrome web store and the type InVID. This will allow you to add the extension to your browser. Once added, it can be used to verify any video – online or one downloaded on your system/phone.

Use the Extension To Fragment the Video

As you hover over the added extension, you will get an option, which says 'Open toolbox'. As you click on the option, you will see several other options.

For video verification, click on keyframes. After this, you can either upload the video or use the URL to fragment the video.

Once the video has been divided, you can use the keyframes to conduct a reverse image search.

But before we proceed, let me tell you the claim with which this video (can be viewed here) is being circulated.

It is being claimed that it is from the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and it shows voter fraud in one of the constituencies, that too, at the behest of the Samajwadi Party. (An archive of the claim, along with the video, can be viewed here.)

But when we conducted a reverse image search, we found this video posted on Facebook on 11 April 2019. The caption alleged "voter fraud" and mentioned the location as "Muzaffarnagar".

So, Is This It? Or Is There More to It?

We haven't yet established if that's the real context or if there is more to it. So, keep looking until you find some credible leads on it.

Now while verifying videos, audio clues can be equally important. The video, which we have used as an example here, shows a woman identifying herself as "BSP candidate Shaila".

Using this information, we conducted a keyword search on Google and other social media platforms.

When we conducted a keyword search on Facebook, we found the same video posted on 28 November 2017.

We then found news reports and videos from 2017 that featured Shaila Khan as the BSP candidate.

In one of the interviews after the election, Khan talked about the viral video and alleged voter fraud when she was asked for the reason she lost the election.

While we were unable to independently verify if the people in the video were indeed supporters of the SP, we could establish that the video was old and was shared without proper context amid the ongoing 2022 UP elections.

(This is the third video of a series titled 'Verify Kiya Kya?' exploring the nuances of fact-checking and media literacy. In the next video we will talk about why mis/disinformation circulates during a big news break. Stay tuned!)

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)