Is this video real? A 5-minute check before you share

Most fake videos don't spread because people are gullible. They spread because forwarding takes one second and checking feels like work. This routine takes about five minutes, and you'll get faster each time.

Step 1: Pause on the feeling

Fake and misleading videos are built to make you feel something right now: anger, fear, pride, or "everyone needs to see this". That rush is the signal to slow down. If a clip makes you want to share it instantly, it's worth one more minute.

Step 2: Find who posted it first

A forward or a repost tells you nothing about where a video came from. Look for the earliest upload:

• On social media, open the post and check whether it credits an original creator or channel.
• Search the platform for a few words from the caption, sorted by oldest.
• Look at the account: when was it created, what else does it post, does it have a real name or organisation behind it?

A video from a known news organisation, an official account or an identifiable eyewitness is a very different thing from a clip on a brand-new account that only posts viral content.

Step 3: Check if the footage is old

A large share of "breaking" videos are real footage from a different time or place. Take two or three screenshots of distinctive frames and run them through a reverse image search such as Google Lens or TinEye. If the same footage shows up years earlier, you have your answer. Our guide to reverse video search shows how to do this on a phone.

Step 4: Check the place and the date

Look for anything that can be checked: shop signs, the language people speak, number plates, landmarks, the weather, the season, clothing. Does it match the place and date the caption claims? A "flood in Mumbai yesterday" filmed in snow, or with signs in another language, doesn't add up.

Step 5: Look and listen for AI tells

Watch it again, slowly. Follow the hands, read any text, check shadows and reflections, and look at people in the background. Listen for a voice that sounds too clean or doesn't match the lips. Our list of 12 signs of AI video covers what to look for.

Step 6: Run a scan

Automated checks see things people can't, like statistical traces inside each frame, how motion behaves over time, and hidden Content Credentials in the file. Paste the link or upload the file to Video Verifier. A Quick Scan is free and takes under a minute. For a video you're about to report on or act on, a Deep Scan checks every second of picture and speech.

A detector's answer is evidence, not a verdict. If the scan, the source and your own checks point the same way, you can be fairly confident. If they disagree, say so when you share, or don't share.

Step 7: See if fact-checkers have covered it

Viral videos often get checked within hours. Search the claim along with "fact check". In India, BOOM, Alt News, Factly, Vishvas News and India Today's fact-check team regularly cover viral videos, and PIB Fact Check covers claims about the central government. Internationally, AFP Fact Check, Reuters Fact Check and Snopes do the same.

Step 8: Decide how to share, or not

If you've checked and you're still not sure, you have three good options:

• Don't share it.
• Share it with context: "Unverified: I couldn't find the original source."
• Share the fact-check or the scan report instead of the video itself.

The 30-second version

When you really have no time, do just these three: find who posted it first, reverse-search one frame, and run a Quick Scan. That alone catches most recycled, edited and AI-made clips.