In a time of crisis, social media is flooded with images, videos and bold claims. This can be useful for researchers like ourselves but overwhelming for the general public seeking the facts.

At Bellingcat, we pride ourselves on providing tools and resources for our audience to think critically about sources they find online. In this short guide, we give a few tips on what to consider when confronted with an abundance of footage and claims.

Here’s how to separate fact from fiction with real, recent examples of misinformation.

1. Be Cautious

Treat all footage and claims with caution. Sometimes real footage can be attributed to false claims and vice versa.

For example, in one of our latest investigations Bellingcat found that the airstrike captured in a viral video occurred near the intersection of Al-Rashid and Beirut Streets, at approximately 31.516746, 34.428689, behind the lattice tower visible in the clip and did not hit the mentioned church as claimed in posts.

The church also debunked the attack on Facebook.

The same area was attacked at a later date, on October 19, 2023, and two assembly halls on the church property were then damaged.

In the process of geolocating footage related to the viral video claiming to show the church site, Bellingcat found evidence that strikes did occur in densely populated areas in the vicinity of several schools. The amplification of the false church claim, as a result, may have obscured a real violation.

You can read the full debunk here....

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiemh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJlbGxpbmdjYXQuY29t...