Verify where a video came from
The most common manipulation is not faking : it is reuse. A genuine video, filmed elsewhere and at another time, is reposted with a new caption. So look for prior appearances first, and only then for signs of fabrication, which are rare and hard to establish.
The tools, in order
- 01
Extracts keyframes and runs them through reverse search, the central move in this task
Journalist-focused browser plugin for media verification, reverse image search, metadata checks, and video keyframe analysis.
- 02
Steps frame by frame to read a plate, a sign or an editing inconsistency
Chrome extension enabling frame-by-frame navigation of YouTube videos using keyboard shortcuts for detailed visual analysis.
- 03
Gives the real upload date and channel metadata, often more telling than the video itself
Suite of tools by the Digital Methods Initiative for retrieving and analyzing YouTube data via the official API — channel info, video networks, comment analysis.
- 04Yandex Imagesfree
The best on extracted keyframes, including cropped or recompressed ones
Reverse image search engine with strong matching for Eastern European and Asian web sources.
- 05
Finds an archived copy when the original was deleted afterwards
Vast public repository of freely accessible movies, news broadcasts, government footage and historical video content hosted by the Internet Archive.
The pitfall to avoid
Automatic fake detectors return scores, not verdicts, and they err both ways on a video recompressed by a social network. Never rest a conclusion on a score alone : prior appearance and the consistency of the setting are evidence, a percentage is not.
🧭 The full plan
The copilot orders every step from your starting point, with pre-filled queries.
📖 The guides
Detailed methods by investigation type.