With an ongoing pandemic and elections taking place in many parts of the world, identifying and stopping the flow of misinformation online is a major issue. On the occasion of International Fact Check Day, Google shared some tips that you can implement in your daily online life to identify and prevent misinformation from spreading.
Look at the context of images
Images are very powerful tools and people who create and disseminate misinformation online realize it. Parts of certain images can be clipped and displayed as free-standing images to completely change their meaning. However, you can check the authenticity of most images you find online by running them through Google once. To do so, right-click on a photo when it’s open in your browser and select “Google Image Search.”
Check out various sources
The best way to check the authenticity of any news you come across is to check if one or more trusted news publications have reported on it as well. You can simply search for any topic in the Google Search application and link to the News panel to find relevant articles. You can also search for news via your favorite browser.
Use fact checking tools
Fact checking is an important part of surfing the internet for information. When you come across any information that seems too good to be true, be sure to check it out. You can use online tools like ‘Fact Check Explorer’ from Google for this. It is also an ideal practice to follow for the forwards you get on WhatsApp or other applications.
Use Google Earth
Incorrect information about specific areas, shopping malls, monuments or other geographical elements can also be addressed via Google Earth. You can use Google Earth to get to know just about everything about a place, including photos of the most famous places. You can then look at photos to see if it picks up the wrong information you saw on the internet. For example, if you come across information that says “Bigfoot spotted near the Eiffel Tower” with the picture of what looks like a monkey walking past a large tower, you can use Google Earth to view images of the actual Eiffel Tower and determine what you see in the picture is real or fake.