A genuine clip can leave out important context, and AI can imitate faces and voices. Abby shares three questions to ask before pressing Share.
There used to be a saying: seeing is believing.
I don't think that works quite as well anymore.
We have computers that can generate realistic faces, copy voices and create videos of events that never happened.
Which makes election time especially interesting.
Because everybody seems to have a video proving somebody else is wrong.
## A video can be real and still mislead you
Here's something I hadn't really considered before.
Imagine a politician gives a ten-minute speech.
Someone takes a seven-second clip, cuts out the question that was asked, and posts it online.
The video might be completely genuine.
The politician really said those words.
But without the rest of the conversation, you might misunderstand what they meant.
That's not necessarily an AI deepfake. It's something much simpler: missing context.
And missing context can change everything.
## Now add artificial intelligence
AI can make this even harder.
Someone could generate a video that looks like a real person saying something they never said.
Or use technology to imitate someone's voice.
The result might look convincing, especially when you're scrolling quickly on your phone.
And that's the problem.
Most of us aren't sitting down with a notebook to investigate every video.
We're just watching.
## My three-question test
Before sharing something surprising, I'd ask:
## 1. Where did it come from?
Is it on an official account, a recognised news website, or an account I've never heard of?
## 2. Can I find the full version?
A short clip might make more sense if I can watch what happened before and afterwards.
## 3. Is anybody else reporting it?
If an extraordinary event really happened, there may be reliable independent evidence.
And if I still can't work it out?
I don't need to share it.
## The most dangerous button might be Share
Something can make us angry, excited or worried before we've had time to think about whether it's true.
Those are exactly the moments when we should slow down.
Because every time we share something, we help it travel further.
Even when we're sharing it to tell everyone how ridiculous it is.
## Abby's challenge
Find a surprising headline or video online.
Before showing anyone, trace it back to the original source.
Can you find the complete story?
Has anything important been left out?
And the biggest question of all: did you change your mind once you looked properly?
Explore more: Deepfake Detective and Headline Decoder in Abby's Labs' Media & Truth world.
This is a media-literacy explainer, not a claim about any particular candidate or election incident.