Lately, there have been so many posts circulating over different social networks which have nothing to do for the betterment, but can be used to create disturbance in communal harmony.
In this era where people debate over Religions with statements like "My religion is superior to yours" and/or something like "Your religion is the cause of terrorism", etc, people have started using social media as a force multiplier in creating hatred among various communities for the reasons best known to them, because obviously there is nothing good in fighting for proving that so-and-so religion is better. If its better, then you don't need to shout and by the way if its better, then first you should follow it sincerely instead of imposing it on others.
My interest, or a 'part' of my work includes keeping eye on the 'potential' hate mongering people and I follow the posts they make, try to verify the authenticity and detect "caption spoofing" (if done) and the read and try to understand the comments the people make on their posts (mostly in favor of them) and try to analyse the 'sentiments' which made them vulnerable to believe whatever is posted by the people they follow.
We do not need to worry about the people who talk 'positive', or at least share the content which is true. The problem is with the people who share anything which they know can create controversy over social media, and they themselves (mostly) do not know whether the content is authentic.
Let me take an example:
While I was browsing through my Facebook news feed, I happened to come along a page which was sharing some content with a 'negative' sentiment to be followed along with it and could disturb the harmony between some communities.
While the post was just gaining momentum as people started sharing this content, my focus was on verifying the authenticity of this post.
Firstly, I downloaded the photo, checked if it was morphed / doctored.
By using tools for 'image based search', we could somehow assume that it wasn't morphed, but had been touched by using some filters to increase the contrast.
As a supporting document to my assumption, I have added the original picture for reference below:
My interest, or a 'part' of my work includes keeping eye on the 'potential' hate mongering people and I follow the posts they make, try to verify the authenticity and detect "caption spoofing" (if done) and the read and try to understand the comments the people make on their posts (mostly in favor of them) and try to analyse the 'sentiments' which made them vulnerable to believe whatever is posted by the people they follow.
We do not need to worry about the people who talk 'positive', or at least share the content which is true. The problem is with the people who share anything which they know can create controversy over social media, and they themselves (mostly) do not know whether the content is authentic.
Let me take an example:
While I was browsing through my Facebook news feed, I happened to come along a page which was sharing some content with a 'negative' sentiment to be followed along with it and could disturb the harmony between some communities.
While the post was just gaining momentum as people started sharing this content, my focus was on verifying the authenticity of this post.
By using tools for 'image based search', we could somehow assume that it wasn't morphed, but had been touched by using some filters to increase the contrast.
As a supporting document to my assumption, I have added the original picture for reference below:
As seen here, the upper part contains the original picture, and the lower part contains the same picture on which some filters have been applied.
Now coming to the story behind the picture.
Well, for this there are many tools over the internet, but I personally prefer using Tineye and/or Google's own image based search tool.
The logic to assume which picture is authentic is, sometimes simply looking for the date it was posted. The older it is, the more are the chances of it being legitimate.
Anyways, there is much to it besides this (date), which helps us ascertain the facts.
After searching over a couple of archives where the photo was posted, I could find a website where this content was posted much before it was posted on the other sites.
I gave it a thorough read, and could be sure that this photo was taken somewhere in Thailand.
On further lookup, I found a video which was aired on a News channel, which could be used for further supporting our assumption.
I rest my case.
Regards,
Arif Ali Khan (itsmeRiF)