Check a viral story
A step-by-step routine for a message dropped into a group chat with the note “everyone read this now”.
verified: how to tell a fact from a rumour online
Vovkinsite — how to tell a fact from a rumour online
Every day a stream of astonishing news flows past us: a whale has swum up a river, a comet will soon be visible in daylight, a kettle supposedly breaks because of one wrong habit. Some of it is true, some is out of date, and some is made up for clicks. This guide teaches you not to guess but to check — calmly and without needless suspicion.
Checking is not distrusting everything; it is the habit of asking a text a few simple questions before you hit “forward”.
Where to start
Find out where a photo came from
How to tell whether a striking photo has been circulating online for years under different captions.
Tell a retelling from the source
Why a third-hand quote and the original document are very different things, even when they sound alike.
Correct your own mistake
What to tell your friends if you have already shared a story that turned out to be untrue.
Guide sections
- Guides
Step-by-step guides: how to check a viral story, find the original source, read news about a study and help your family. The article catalogue is here too.
- Tools
Techniques to use when checking: reverse image search, date-limited search, web page archives, file properties, maps and street-level imagery.
- Comparisons
How an original source differs from a retelling and an opinion, and a photo from a drawing, a video still and an AI-generated picture.
- If you slipped
What to do if you shared a mistake, a relative believes a chain message, or nobody in an argument can find where a story came from.
- Security
Risks for the careful reader: emotional headlines, fake accounts, forged screenshots and cloned voices.
- Glossary
A glossary of terms: original source, context, clickbait, deepfake, metadata, verification and other concepts in plain words.
- Questions
Answers about the guide, about checking photos and texts, and about talking to parents and children about rumours.
A five-minute check
Who wrote it
Look at who signed the post and whether that person or organisation has published anything else. A message with no author that begins “a friend of mine told me” is a reason to slow down.
Where the original source is
Find where the story first came from: a research team's report, a weather service announcement, an appliance maker's page. If the chain of links ends in someone's retelling, the claim is not yet confirmed.
When it was published
Check the date. Last year's high-wind warning or an old photo of the northern lights can easily pass for today's once the timestamp is cropped out.
What other independent sources say
Look for the same news from people who are not copying one another. If the message exists only in one chain of forwards and nowhere else, that is a warning sign.
Is it playing on your emotions
Ask yourself whether the text is written to make you scared, amazed or outraged before you have had time to think. A strong emotion is a signal to reread the message more slowly.
The essentials
Are you a media outlet?
No. Vovkinsite is a guide to checking techniques. We do not publish news, we do not pass judgement on real events, and we do not declare what is true or false in specific stories.
How can I tell a photo is old?
A reverse image search usually helps: it shows where the picture has appeared before. Also look at details in the frame — the season, signs, models of devices, image quality — which may not match the caption.
Can I trust a screenshot?
Not always. A screenshot is easy to alter in any editor, and sometimes it is built entirely from scratch. It is safer to find the original post via a link than to trust a picture of it.
What if I have already forwarded a mistake?
Correct it and say so. Write in the same chat that the story was not confirmed and briefly explain why. That is normal practice, not something to be ashamed of.
About the project
A different site used to run on this domain, and later unrelated spam pages appeared here. Their content has not been kept and is not reproduced, and the current guide has no connection with them. The name came to us with the domain and has no particular meaning.
We write about how to read the internet attentively: looking for the original document, checking dates, noticing when context has been swapped, and not falling for loud headlines. Our examples are deliberately peaceful — drawn from science, astronomy, animal life, weather forecasts, housekeeping and gadgets.
Read next
- Guides
Step-by-step guides: how to check a viral story, find the original source, read news about a study and help your family. The article catalogue is here too.
- Tools
Techniques to use when checking: reverse image search, date-limited search, web page archives, file properties, maps and street-level imagery.
- Comparisons
How an original source differs from a retelling and an opinion, and a photo from a drawing, a video still and an AI-generated picture.
- If you slipped
What to do if you shared a mistake, a relative believes a chain message, or nobody in an argument can find where a story came from.
- Glossary
A glossary of terms: original source, context, clickbait, deepfake, metadata, verification and other concepts in plain words.
Sources
- Reference materials on media literacy and information checking (general principles)
- Editorial materials of the Vovkinsite guide
The method is described in general terms as of the preparation date. Search engines, archives and forgery techniques change over time, so treat this advice as a way of reasoning rather than a final verdict on any particular post.