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