In every emergency of the last decade, false information moved faster than the emergency did. Some of it is invented. Most of it is a real message about a different place, or a real message from three years ago.
Where official information actually comes from. Every country on this site names its own crisis channel — a government site, a broadcaster, a mobile alert system, or all three. Find yours now, while nothing is happening, and know what it looks like. A person who has never seen a real alert cannot tell a fake one.
Three checks that take ten seconds each.
- Who first said it? Not who sent it to you. If the trail ends in a screenshot, you have a screenshot, not a source.
- When? A photograph of a burning building carries no date. The same picture is recycled in every crisis.
- Where? Look for something in the image that fixes the place: a sign, a number plate, a language on a shopfront.
The rule about repeating. If you have not checked it, do not forward it. In a real emergency the messages you send are the ones people you love will act on, and a rumour arrives with your name on it.
If you are not sure, say what you actually know: "I have seen a message saying X, I have not been able to confirm it." That is a useful thing to send. A forwarded rumour is not.