Verifying news online means checking who published a claim, searching for independent confirmation from other outlets, and testing photos or videos before trusting or sharing them. A global survey shows rising public anxiety about telling real from fake content, especially on video-first platforms, which is why media-literacy groups and fact-checking networks publish concrete verification steps.
Why Verification Is Getting Harder
Concern about distinguishing real from fake news online rose to around 59% of respondents globally in the 2024 Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, up three percentage points from the previous year. The same report found the worry climbs higher in countries that held elections that year, reaching 72% in the United States and 81% in South Africa.
The report also found that difficulty telling trustworthy from untrustworthy content varies by platform: 27% of TikTok users and 24% of X users said they struggle to judge whether content on those networks is reliable, the highest rates among the platforms the survey covered.
Start With the Source
The first check is who published a claim and why. The AARP's guide to spotting disinformation, which draws on advice from the nonprofit News Literacy Project and the Poynter Institute's MediaWise program, recommends examining a source's credibility and motivation before accepting a claim, rather than relying on how many likes or shares a post has received.
Don't amplify anything you can't verify by sharing it.
— Hannah Covington, News Literacy Project, quoted by AARP
A related technique called lateral reading means leaving the article or post itself and opening new browser tabs to search what other, independent sources say about the same claim or website, rather than judging a page only by how it looks.
Check who created the content and what their track record is
Look for what evidence is cited, and whether it links to an original source
Search in a separate tab for what other credible outlets report on the same claim
Use the "About this source" option in Google Search (the three-dot menu next to a result) for background on an unfamiliar outlet
Wait before sharing breaking claims, since early reports often change as more facts emerge
Check Photos and Video Before Trusting Them
A reverse image search can show where a photo first appeared online and in what original context, using free tools such as Google Lens or the images.google.com search page, according to AARP's guide. Real, unaltered photos are frequently recirculated with a false caption to support an unrelated story, so finding the earliest version of an image helps establish whether the context has been changed.
For AI-generated or altered video, the AARP guide cites Northwestern University researcher Matt Groh's advice to look for visual inconsistencies such as mismatched necks, fingers or ears, or unnatural body movement, while cautioning that detection is becoming harder as the underlying technology improves.
Use Established Fact-Checking Organizations
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), created by the Poynter Institute in 2015, sets a code of ethics for fact-checking organizations and reviews applicants for compliance before issuing certification, according to Wikipedia's summary of the network. As of 2026 the code has more than 170 verified signatories in over 80 countries, and certification must be renewed annually.
Independent fact-checking services such as Snopes and PolitiFact investigate specific claims and publish their sourcing, which makes it possible to check whether a circulating claim has already been examined before deciding whether to trust or share it.
Quick verification methods
Method
What it checks
Example tool or resource
Reverse image search
Where a photo first appeared and its original context
Google Lens, images.google.com
Lateral reading
What other independent sources say about a claim or site
Open new tabs and search the claim or site name
Source/author check
Who published the content and their track record or motive
Google's "About this source" panel
Fact-checker cross-check
Whether a claim has already been verified or debunked
IFCN signatories, PolitiFact, Snopes
Before You Share
Media-literacy guidance summarized by AARP condenses the process into three questions drawn from the Stanford History Education Group's civic-reasoning curriculum: who created this, what evidence supports it, and what do other sources say. Applying those three questions, together with a reverse image search for any accompanying photo or video, covers most of the checks recommended across the sources above before deciding whether information is reliable enough to trust or pass on.
Questions
What is lateral reading and how does it help verify news?
Lateral reading means opening new browser tabs to search what independent, credible sources say about a claim or website instead of judging it only by its own appearance, a technique highlighted in AARP's media-literacy guide.
How can I check if a photo or video is real?
Run a reverse image search with a free tool such as Google Lens or images.google.com to see where the image first appeared and in what context; for video, look for visual glitches such as mismatched necks, fingers or ears, which can indicate AI manipulation, according to AARP's reporting.
What makes a fact-checking organization trustworthy?
Organizations certified by the International Fact-Checking Network must comply with its code of ethics and pass a review by the network, and must renew that certification every year, according to Wikipedia's summary of the IFCN.
Why has it become harder to tell real from fake news online?
The Reuters Institute's 2024 Digital News Report found global concern about distinguishing real from fake news rose to about 59%, with users reporting particular difficulty judging content on video-first platforms such as TikTok and X.
What should I do before sharing a news post on social media?
Check who created it, look for supporting evidence, search for what other sources report on the same claim, and verify any image or video before sharing, according to guidance from the News Literacy Project and Stanford History Education Group summarized by AARP.
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Journalists and fact-checkers verify claims by tracing them to primary sources, cross-checking multiple independent witnesses or documents, and applying specific digital techniques such as reverse image search and geolocation. Certified fact-checking organizations follow a published code requiring non-partisanship, source transparency and open corrections. The rise of AI-generated images, video and text has made this verification work slower and more contested even as fabricated content becomes cheaper to produce.
