Picture of a flood in France back in 2010
Ever since the storm began, I’ve been receiving tons of pictures from various regions but I’ve always been keen to check the source before posting or tweeting them. However, as I was leaving today I was looking at some footages from 7ay el Sellom on LBCI and it looked really bad then someone showed me a picture of the floods in Choueifat (See picture above) or at least what he thought was Choueifat. He looked worried and sad because he lives there somewhere and some relative of his sent him the picture. I asked him like 3-4 times if he was sure of it and he kept saying yes and started giving me the looks at some point. I even asked two friends who were leaving with me and one told me the building looks like the St.Georges hospital on the coastal road there and the other agreed. I didn’t have a laptop to verify it so I tweeted it only to find out few minutes later that it’s from a different flood in another country.
I know I am to blame here and I already removed the picture and tweet, but I still can’t believe that they don’t even know how their town looks like and mistook it for a city in the South-East of France. Morale of the story is not to always ask Google before posting any doubtful pictures.
Speaking of Google, I thought I show you, at least those of you who don’t know, a quick way to check pictures and making sure they are not fake. It’s very easy and straight-forward:
Step1: Go to Google –> Images then Drag the picture into the search toolbar
Step2: Let Google upload the picture and search for it
Step3: Check the search results Google returned and see if the picture is in any old news.
Also, here’s a link to the Google Chrome extension I was telling you about:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dajedkncpodkggklbegccjpmnglmnflm
All you need to do is right-click any image.
tab 3al alileh oul merci for the method of verifying pics wlo! za3altne! (am kidding)
It does look like Saint George hospital and the hill does look like hadath/Baabda so basita iza el chabeb ghalbato
you reminded me of this TED Talk. He talks about the process they took to identify videos supposedly taken in Syria. http://www.ted.com/talks/markham_nolan_how_to_separate_fact_and_fiction_online.html
looks like france24 news did believe it too. the internet is no more reliable:
http://www.france24.com/fr/20130108-proche-orient-liban-inondation-tempete-jordanie-neige-syrie-israel?ns_campaign=editorial&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=reseaux_sociaux&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20130108_proche_orient_liban_inondation_tempete_jordanie