Verification Handbook: A Definitive Guide to Verifying Digital Content for Emergency Coverage

Craig Silverman — the journalist who later became one of BuzzFeed News's most important reporters on disinformation — edited this open-access handbook as a practical guide for journalists verifying digital content in breaking news situations. Contributors include practitioners from the BBC, Storyful, the Guardian, and other major newsrooms, each sharing specific techniques for verifying photos, videos, social media accounts, and eyewitness accounts under the time pressures of news production. The handbook has since been updated and expanded, but the core methodology it established has become the foundation for digital verification practice worldwide.

For practitioners in the information environment, the Verification Handbook is valuable not primarily as a journalistic tool but as a methodology for open-source investigation more broadly. The techniques for geolocating images, verifying the provenance of social media content, and assessing the credibility of digital sources are the same techniques used in attribution research, influence operation investigation, and the monitoring of disinformation campaigns. Bellingcat's methodology owes much to the tradition this handbook established. Available free online, it is one of the most practically useful open-access resources in the field.