Quick tips

• Count the fingers, read the signs. Extra fingers, garbled letters and shadows going two ways are classic tells of a generated picture.
• Listen for breathing. Cloned voices often run sentences together with no breath and a flat tone. But a natural sound proves nothing.
• Trace beats look. Who posted it first, and does the official source agree? That check still works when the fake is perfect.
• Old video, new story. A real clip with a false caption is still fake news. A reverse search finds where it really came from.
• Strange isn't fake. A weird purple sky can be real. Calling real things fake hurts trust too, so look for proof both ways.