The same photo, before and after WhatsApp: only the original backs up the story

Say a source tells you they took this outside a church on La Trobe Street in Melbourne on the morning of 25 September, on a Samsung phone. We took it ourselves and checked both copies.

• The original, off the phone: where, when and which phone.
• The copy WhatsApp delivered: none of it.

What changed

• The location. The original points to La Trobe Street. The copy has none.
• The time and the phone. The original records 9:52:54 am and a Galaxy A56. The copy records neither.
• The size. The copy arrived smaller: 1536 × 2048 instead of 3000 × 4000.

What the report said: Authenticity A for the original, with high confidence. Authenticity B for the WhatsApp copy, with low confidence, because there's so little left to check.

Nothing in the copy contradicts the story, but nothing supports it either. Ask for the original file.

Go deeper

• How a newsroom can use this: How to verify a photo or video from a source before you publish
• Try it on your own photo