FieldP-03 · Provenance, source, date, location
Verify a Piece of Content
Establish whether a photo, video, document or post is what it is presented as being.
Step 1
Provenance
Find the earliest instance, not the most viral one. Reverse image search across more than one engine. A no-match result proves nothing: it only means the index has no earlier copy.
Step 2
Source
Who uploaded it? What is their history? What access would they need to have captured this? An account created last week is not a witness.
Step 3
Date
Do not trust the post time. Platforms strip EXIF on upload, so missing metadata is normal and uninformative. Corroborate with shadows, weather records and events visible in frame.
Step 4
Location
Identify fixed features — rooflines, signage, poles, terrain — and match several of them independently against satellite and street-level imagery. One match can be coincidence.
Step 5
If Place or Time Is Load-Bearing
Stop this protocol and run P-04. This one screens. That one places.
Step 6
Grade It
Rate the source and the information separately using the Admiralty code. A reliable source can carry a doubtful claim.
Step 7
Corroborate Independently
One more source that could have come out differently. Reposts of the same image are not independent.
Step 8
Write the Caveat
State what remains unverified in the finding itself, not in a footnote.
How It Fails
Publishing the recycled image from another conflict; dating an event by its upload time; counting fifty reposts as fifty sources.