The three questions
- Is it real? Not generated, not deepfaked, not from an older incident relabeled.
- Where is it? Geolocation against terrain, buildings, signage, and reference imagery.
- When is it? Chronolocation against sun angle, weather, posted timestamps, and prior unedited posts.
Quick reader checks
- Reverse image search a single frame. Recycled footage usually shows up.
- Check the upload timestamp against the claimed incident time. A video that supposedly shows a daytime strike posted from a different timezone's evening should raise a flag.
- Watch for missing audio, suspicious cuts, or watermarks from unrelated channels.
What verification does not give you
A verified video is evidence of what is visible in the frame. It is not evidence of intent, attribution, or context. The video showing damage at a named site does not, on its own, tell you who caused the damage or why.