2 Account Verification
2.1 Analyze user account/profile
Determining ‘who’ the uploader is, is the first important step in verifying social media
content. If the account user is not a trusted source it puts the legitimacy of the content into
question. During the account verification stage it is important to consider what connection
the user has to the incident at hand. For example, does the user work for an NGO? Is he or
she a political activist, a member of the Government, or associated with an armed group?
Was he or she a witness to the particular event or does the account belong to an organisation
with a particular agenda? These are all important aspects to keep in mind.
When analyzing an uploader’s account – i.e. on a platform such as Twitter, Facebook, or
YouTube – there are various factors to take into consideration. A number of steps are listed
below, and they are intended to facilitate an initial impression of the account and the
intentions of the uploader.
A useful tool for analyzing a Twitter account is foller.me which gives you an overview of an
account’s activity and followers (See subsection 8.6.1 in section 8).
When analysing an uploader’s account, it is important to keep in mind that this process is
imprecise: it is centred around obtaining an impression of the uploader. As such, there are no
set
criteria
capable
of
definitively
illegitimate/fake/untrustworthy/inauthentic.
indicating
That
said,
bot
that
an
accounts
account
are
is
inherently
suspicious. Bot accounts are accounts that perform automated tasks and do not have
someone operating them in real time. Other illegitimate/fake/untrustworthy/inauthentic
accounts to look out for are those associated with ‘fake news’ and disinformation. Equally,
just because one of the following sub-steps is not met, does not disqualify that account
overall.
When analyzing a user account or profile the following questions are relevant:
1. When was the account or profile created and how frequently do they post content?
a. Ask yourself if the account or profile has been active for a while and since
when has the uploader has been uploading content. If the user has been
uploading content on the same issues or geographical areas for a period of
time there is a higher probability that this particular profile or account has
experience in this particular region, country or topic, indicating that the
account or profile may be legitimate. On the other hand, a user may have
10