Ways to decode what's authentic online; Don’t let false and AI content fool you
Telegraph | 5 March 2025
A huge portion of the content we encounter on social media could be fake or AI-generated (Artificial Intelligence), cops specialising in cyber crime told participants of a workshop on Monday.
The above-mentioned links, photographs and videos are fake, the officers said.
“A large portion of what we see on social media is either generated through artificial intelligence or by putting a wrong context to an event. It is for us to remain alert and try to identify the fake ones from the genuine content,” said H.K. Kusumakar, additional director-general of police (Cyber Crime), Bengal police.
Speaking to several police officers of the Cyber Crime Wing and the Bengal CID, Metro lists types of fake content and how to possibly identify them.
Photographs
How to check authenticity: Google Lens, an application with the Google search engine, can be used to verify the authenticity of a photograph. “If a photograph raises suspicion, it can be viewed through Google Lens to generate all related data. If a celebrity’s photograph is fake and you scan it under Google Lens, chances are you will get news items related to the photo being fake,” said an officer of the Cyber Crime Wing.
Videos
How to check authenticity: The police said the task of checking the authenticity or the context in which a video is being uploaded on social media is a little complex. “We call it the Reverse Imaging technique where we try to identify the source of the video,” said a senior police officer.
Tell-tell signs: “Many profiles will have AI-generated display pictures, will show a huge ‘follower’ number and zero ‘following’ list. Such profiles are suspicious,” said an officer. A profile with a man’s name but a woman’s photograph could also be fake, the officer added.
Deepfakes
How to identify: Deepfake videos of celebrities, politicians or people whose voice samples are easily available on the Internet, are often generated to mislead people, spread misinformation or for financial gains of the video’s creator. “In such AI-generated videos, usually the lip-syncing does not match with the audio in the video, the light is inadequate, the background is blurred, and is a low resolution video,” said an officer of Bengal police’s cyber crime wing.