Home / Tricks / Doctored photo or video
Doctored photo or video
Editing a real photo, video or audio so it shows something that didn't happen.
In our replies we call it: Edited to mislead
What it means
Part of a real photo or video is changed: the words on a placard swapped, a person added to a scene or removed from it, a voice dubbed over someone's speech, a clip slowed down to make someone look drunk. The real parts make the fake part believable.
How to spot it in a Reel
- Words on a sign or banner that don't sit right on the surface
- Sound that doesn't match the lips, the room or the crowd
- A clip of a public figure that looks unusually slow or jumpy
Examples
- A 2019 video of US politician Nancy Pelosi, slowed down to make her seem drunk.
- Pictures of a shark swimming down a flooded highway, pasted in from another photo and shared after almost every big flood.
Why it doesn't hold up
Editing changes what happened, not just how it's framed. The unedited original usually exists, and it is the evidence.
What to say back
"Where's the original, unedited version?"
Questions
How is this different from an AI-made video?
A doctored video starts from real footage and changes part of it. An AI-made one is generated from scratch. Both can be checked against an original source, when there is one.
Check a Reel for this trick
Send any Reel to @checkthis.chat on Instagram. If it uses this trick, the reply names it and shows where it happens.
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