The media industry’s challenges in verifying visual content

As fake or manipulated images and videos spread rapidly across social media, news organisations face a growing challenge when it comes to verification. Establishing the authenticity of visual material is often both technically complex and extremely time-consuming. It is time that a news story often does not have before it has already spread across social media — sometimes based on false or misleading material.

One example is images from Iran, where it has not been possible for media organisations to send their own photographers into the country, leaving them dependent on unverified material from external sources.