The BBC has embraced the Content Credentials system and will begin slapping X’s Community Notes-style explainers beneath imagery to show their authenticity.
The move from the British broadcaster, which operates all over the world, is to counter disinformation and reassure readers that what they’re seeing is genuine.
“How do we know what we can trust online?” Asks the BBC’s Nick Eardley. “The world is a pretty uncertain place at the moment, there’s the war in Gaza; conflict in Ukraine. 2024 is a huge year for elections all over the world and with deepfake videos and dodgy claims on the internet — it’s more important than ever that we know what we can trust.”
For example, violence has broken out in Haiti in the last few days, and a video showing a gun shootout in a cemetery has been verified by the BBC using the Content Credentials tool.
A Community Notes-style tag explains how the editorial team geolocated the video and how it has not appeared online before. A link on the explainer goes through to the Content Credentials website.
“At BBC News we know that trust is earned. When our audiences know not just what we know, but how we know it, they feel they can trust our journalism even more,” says CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness.
“That’s why we are proud to lead the way with a brand new feature that will allow consumers to see how we have checked and verified that the images we use are authentic. In a world of deepfakes, disinformation, and distortion, this transparency is more important than ever.”
Image Provenance in 2024
In a world where people can now dismiss a photo by accusing it of being AI-generated, the Content Credentials system which was spearheaded by Adobe feels more vital than ever before.
For major news organizations such as the BBC it helps them log information and combat disinformation. Everyday folk may now start seeing Content Credentials as an option from time to time. Such as on the Leica M11-P or a recent app called Click which will verify photos by harnessing the Content Authenticity Initiative.