Deepfake and Synthetic Media Check

Build an evidence and corroboration checklist for image, audio, video, or screenshots.

Plan for this page

Apply your judgment to a real situation and keep a reusable result.

You will leave with: Record claim, origin, context, provenance, corroboration, consequence, and response.
Time: 10 min
Before you begin: Use this before relying on, acting on, or sharing a consequential media claim.
Do this now: Choose one real case, then answer in order without skipping a question.

Prepared next stepOpen the Synthetic Media Evidence Challenge

When to use it

Use this before relying on, acting on, or sharing a consequential media claim.

Assess the claim around the media, not only the file. Preserve uncertainty and avoid unnecessary amplification.

What you will make

Evidence and corroboration checklist

What exactly is the media said to prove?
Can you trace the earliest available source?
Does chronology and surrounding context fit?
How will you use technical signals?

What exactly is the media said to prove?

A genuine file can be paired with a false date, place, identity, or caption.

Can you trace the earliest available source?

Reposts remove context and can alter files or captions.

Does chronology and surrounding context fit?

Time, place, weather, language, records, and alternate angles can test the caption.

How will you use technical signals?

Credentials and detectors answer scoped questions, not truth itself.

What will you do while uncertainty remains?

Sharing and accusation can create harm even when phrased as a question.

Answer every question to build your result

Reusable result

Evidence and corroboration checklist

Record claim, origin, context, provenance, corroboration, consequence, and response.

Limits

This is not a forensic detector. Visual clues, metadata, credentials, and automated detection can all be incomplete or misinterpreted.

Privacy principle

Do not upload real sensitive media or identify private people here. Use category-level notes and lawful specialist channels.

Open the Synthetic Media Evidence Challenge

Sources and scope

What supports this object

Emerging

C2PA SpecificationsCoalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity

Defines standards for recording content origin and transformations; provenance does not prove truth, and missing credentials do not prove fabrication.

Open source

Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative Artificial Intelligence ProfileU.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology

Supports management of confabulation, information integrity, privacy, testing, and generative-system risks; actions remain context-specific.

Open source

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