We live in a digital era, and the internet has become essential to our lifestyle. Thanks to advanced telecommunication infrastructure, people living in remote areas can also access the web to view online content and consume information. The rise of 4G and 5G wireless internet technologies has helped people from various cultures, industries, regions, and demographics access the web without any hassles.
While this possibility has made it possible for responsible and credible information sources to make people aware of valuable information, it has also led to the spread of false information online. It takes a few seconds to make anything viral online, and social media plays the biggest role. The existence of various social media platforms allows evil-minded entities to take advantage of naive people and build a false narrative against anyone, including an average person, celebrity, or even politician.
False information may spread fear or anger amongst the masses, which may result in a negative reaction. Hence, as responsible netizens, it is everyone’s duty to ensure that anything, especially visuals, that goes viral online is true. Otherwise, give it a second thought before sharing it further and verify it. Journalists or influencers should, especially, pay attention to verifying images before sharing them to prevent the possibility of a wrong visual going viral online.
The search by image technique can be helpful in doing so. This article tells you everything you should know regarding using reverse image search tools to verify visuals. Read on to learn more.
What are Some Other Ways to Verify Viral Images?
Before discussing the role of search by image tools in verifying viral images on social media, it is essential to discuss a few other methods that can help you ensure that you don’t contribute to spreading false information. This section outlines these methods. Further details are given below.
Analyzing the Image Yourself is the First Step
Before you do anything else to verify if the viral image you see online is true by using any other method, you should think about it and try to figure out whether it sounds realistic. The image getting viral online would come with some context. Generally, it is presented as news, and you will see an interesting headline and multiple text blocks accompanying the image. You should establish a connection between the headline and the image you see.
If you find any connection between the news headline and the image accompanying it, it could be a true piece of information. However, it is still too early to reach any conclusion. You should try a few other methods before reaching a conclusion and sharing the image and accompanying information further on social media. Otherwise, you may become a part of the process that was purposefully initiated by evil-minded entities to spread false information.
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Give the Origin of the Image a Thought
Before deciding whether an image and the accompanying information are true, it is essential to look for the image’s origin that is going viral online. The source of the image that published it online first can help you reach a decision. If you see a website with domain extensions like ‘.club’ or ‘.io’, it is better to give up the idea of sharing it further. Otherwise, you may end up regretting the act of sharing such an image and piece of information further. Moreover, you must cross-check the image and news by visiting credible information sources to ensure that the image you are seeing and the information provided with it as context is true.
How Search by Image Tools Play Their Role?
Now is the time to understand how the reverse image search technique and the tools available to perform it can help you verify viral images. The process is quite simple. You just need to access an advanced online tool like the one available on SearchbyImage.org for this purpose. We suggest you use an independent tool to perform a reverse image search because it can bring visually similar results from various databases in one go.
Relying on a particular renowned search platform may result in missing out on any worth-noticing result because of the inability of its CBIR algorithm to accurately display all visually similar results or the absence of a standout photo from its database. Performing a reverse image search on an advanced online tool is pretty easy. You can do it in just a few steps. These steps are given below.
- Access the tool online.
- Upload the image or add its URL to perform a search.
- You can also import images from cloud storage platforms for search.
- Once you input the search query, the tool will analyze it.
- After analysis, it will synchronously search all renowned platforms.
- After the search, it will display results from various databases in one place.
- You can browse results from all platforms and verify the image.
In the End
It is your responsibility to prevent false information from going viral online. Otherwise, it may lead to a serious incident. You can easily do it by verifying images that are going viral online. While multiple methods are usable to verify the image, the availability of advanced search by image tools makes the process easier. We have discussed how this process can become simple. Hopefully, you will use the discussed methods to verify images and prevent false images from going viral. Use the web responsibly!
