Explainer · Last reviewed 2026-10-26 · Updated 2026-10-26
How to find the original source of a viral image or video
Short answer: work backwards. Save the link, run reverse image searches in more than one engine, search key frames for video, check the oldest saved copy, then find the full official version and compare it with the viral copy.
1. Save what you have
Copy the link, the account name, the date and time you saw it, and take a screenshot. Posts get deleted and captions get edited.
2. Run a reverse image search
Search with the image, or with a crop of the most distinctive part, in more than one engine, because each has a different index: Google Lens (opens in a new tab), TinEye (opens in a new tab), Bing Visual Search (opens in a new tab) and Yandex Images (opens in a new tab). In TinEye you can sort results by oldest. The oldest copy that you can date is usually closest to the source.
3. For video, search key frames
Pull still frames from the video and search them the same way. The InVID-WeVerify browser plugin (opens in a new tab) extracts key frames and runs the searches, and the YouTube Data Viewer (opens in a new tab) shows the upload date and time of a YouTube video and its thumbnails.
4. Look for older saved copies
Paste the page address into the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (opens in a new tab) to see earlier saved versions, and save the page yourself while it is still up. The Wayback Machine does not capture everything, and posts that need a login are often missing.
5. Find the full, official version
For a clip, find the full recording from the official source: a government video and transcript, the channel’s own upload, the full episode. Then find the exact second. For a photo, look for the photographer, agency or the account that posted it first.
6. Date the first appearance you can verify
Write “earliest we verified”, not “earliest ever”. Say what you could not find. Then compare the viral copy with the original, as in the guide to spotting edits.
What this looked like in our case files
| Case file | Where the original was | What it showed |
|---|---|---|
| FLR-004: 2011 ceremony clip | Official video of the 2011-09-30 ceremony, at 13:10 | “Michael” is Admiral Mullen’s son; the viral copy is a 25-second cut |
| FLR-005: 2015 speech clip | Official video and transcript of 2015-06-09 | He was reading a letter, and “my husband Michael” is its writer’s words |
| FLR-009: 2025 podcast clip | The full episode, near 55:29 | She is asking Marlon Wayans about his child |
| FLR-013: the gift video | The 2017-01-20 broadcast (AFP) | The broadcast shows no throw |
| FLR-002: “young Barack and Michelle” | Barack Obama’s own post, 2019-01-17 | The viral copy is an edited version of it |
Sources for this guide
- Internet Archive Help Center: using the Wayback Machine (opens in a new tab)
- InVID Verification Plugin (opens in a new tab) (InVID project)
- YouTube Data Viewer (opens in a new tab) (Amnesty International Citizen Evidence Lab)
- C2PA (opens in a new tab) for Content Credentials, where a file carries them
Related pages
- How to tell if a photo was edited or AI-generated
- All 13 claims we have checked
- Is Michelle Obama a man? The full review
- Methodology
Change log
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-26 | First version. |
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