Shayan Sardarizadeh

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 27, 2024 at 14:21 UTC

On Twitter, @shayan86.bsky.social wrote "Pro-Kremlin influencers claim the captain of the Dali ship is a Ukrainian", & that "The ship that hit the bridge reportedly had an all-Indian crew". twitter.com/Shayan86/sta...

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:46 UTC

If you enjoyed this thread, please stay on the lookout for more threads with step-by-step guides on verification of videos, AI content, online scams and screenshots of social media posts.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:16 UTC

Install the InVID Chrome extension, right click on any online image, select InVid debunker and it'll bring up a range of direct reverse search options with multiple tools for you. We'll talk more about InVID in my next thread about video verification.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:15 UTC

If you've lasted all the way to this point, well done! You should now be able to verify online images for yourself. As a bonus, let me introduce you to InVID, an excellent verification plugin used by nearly all fact-checkers and OSINT practitioners.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:13 UTC

The fourth link leads us to a 2018 article that states not only has the flag been doctored, but also the image was taken in Novokuznetsk, Russia. If you reverse search that Lenin monument photo in the article, you will find it indeed matches the monument in the original image.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:12 UTC

Let's verify this viral image from last year, claiming to show a Nazi wedding in Ukraine. Upload the image to TinEye and you'll quickly see two things: The image seems to date back to at least 2016 or 2019, and that may not be the Ukrainian flag, but the Russian imperial flag.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:11 UTC

TinEye is another well-known, free reverse image search engine.

While it may not be as comprehensive as Google Lens, TinEye has a very unique feature that I really appreciate: it allows you to filter results in a chronological order.

tineye.com

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:11 UTC

Here's a viral tweet claiming a Kyiv tower block was never hit. Yandex works best if you save an image on your hard drive and upload it. Once you've done that, it'll provide you with a series of images and web pages confirming the block was indeed hit on 26 February 2022.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:08 UTC

The other reverse image search platforms work pretty much the same. Yandex, a Russian search engine, used to be regarded as the most powerful of all reverse search tools. That's no longer the case. But it's still widely used by journalists, particularly for the war in Ukraine.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:07 UTC

Lens also helps you quickly translate text in another language, say a street or shop sign in an image, or spot text added to a doctored image. If you click on text in Lens for this alleged Zelensky image, it'll bring up fact-checks which show the photo has been manipulated.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:07 UTC

Crop the image and click on "find image source". The first few pages of results are all from 2022 and 2023, but on page four you'll see the date 13 May 2016. Click on the link. You'll see the image on Flickr posted by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, meaning it's an old photo.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:06 UTC

Google Lens results are not chronological, which means you sometimes have to scroll through several pages of results to find the earliest date. This image went viral days after the Russian invasion, claiming to show children seeing off Ukrainian troops. Let's verify it using Google Lens.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:04 UTC

Always look for notable signs or landmarks in an image and use the crop feature to narrow down your search. In this image, those tower blocks in blue, yellow and green are a distinct feature. Crop the image on Lens and the tool will quickly clarify you're looking at a photo of Bogota, Colombia.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:03 UTC

You've already got your answer about the image. But if you're keen to find the original source of the image, you can keep looking through Google Lens results for the earliest date. You'll find this Instagram post from 19 January. The user confirms she took the image at 8 o'clock that day.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Google Lens will bring up a range of relevant results. If you click on the first link, you will see a Guardian report clarifying this was a lenticular cloud spotted in Bursa, Turkey, on 19 January - almost three weeks before the earthquake.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:01 UTC

Lens is Google's excellent tool for checking online content. Here's a tweet by US conspiracy theorist Stew Peters claiming this cloud was seen in Turkey just before the recent earthquake. On Chrome, simply right-click on the image and select "search image with Google".

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 12:00 UTC

Reverse image search is the most fundamental part of content verification - the process of searching to find if, and when, an image has appeared on the internet before, and in what context. Google Lens, Yandex, TinEye and Bing are among the free tools that allow you to do this.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 11:58 UTC

THREAD: How to verify online images Social media is awash with false or misleading images, some of which get millions of engagements. So here's a simple guide on ways you can quickly check the veracity of images you see on your social media feeds with major elections coming up this year.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 11, 2024 at 11:55 UTC

Sure

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 01, 2024 at 12:50 UTC

This is not an endorsement of Bushnell's views or about other posts he made on Reddit about Israel, archived versions of which can be found and verified online.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 01, 2024 at 12:49 UTC

Viral posts are falsely attributing this Reddit post to Aaron Bushnell, a US Air Force serviceman who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. The screenshot is fake and was not posted by Bushnell.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Mar 01, 2024 at 12:48 UTC

Thank you, Aidan!

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Feb 23, 2024 at 14:54 UTC

The 4chanification of Twitter is in full swing.

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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social [ View ] Feb 19, 2024 at 23:45 UTC

Pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories about Alexei Navalny's death are in full circle: - CIA/MI6 killed Navalny to blame Putin - Yulia Navalnaya and "her boyfriend" killed Navalny - Ukraine killed Navalny to get the $60bn US aid package - Navalny was killed by the Covid vaccine

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