This lab uses public incident reporting and sanitized synthetic artifacts for defensive OSINT training. Real incidents are referenced for educational context only. The interactive data is fictionalized and must not be used to identify, contact, expose, or accuse real people.
Recycled Protest Clip
Decide whether a viral 'live protest' video really shows the claimed event by cross-checking reverse-search results, visual clues, and official statements.
Good. The verification method follows published AFP/AP fact-checking practice; the specific video, port, and accounts are synthetic training data.
Incident Brief & Analytical Mission
A video circulating on social platforms claims to show a 'massive live strike at Meridian Port, 14 March 2026'. It spreads fast, but a reverse-image search of key frames surfaces an older copy of the same footage published in June 2021 from a different city, and the local police account states no major incident occurred that day. This mirrors one of the most common misinformation patterns documented by AFP and AP fact-checkers: authentic old footage recycled as breaking news during a crisis. All locations, dates, and accounts in this case are fictional.
Compare the claim date against the original publication date, identify which visual clues betray the old context, separate facts from inferences, and make a defensible publish/do-not-publish recommendation for a newsroom.
Claim Date vs Original Publication
Chronology reconstructed from reverse-search hits and platform metadata. Archive references are synthetic.
Earliest indexed copy of the footage: local news segment about a dockworker rally in the city of Kadria. Archive record ARC-2021-0614.
Same footage re-posted by several regional accounts, matching weather and signage.
Anonymous account posts the clip captioned 'LIVE: Meridian Port general strike NOW'.
Meridian Port Authority and city police accounts state operations are normal and no large gathering is present.
Investigative Checklist Tasks
- 01
State, with date evidence from the timeline, whether the video shows the claimed 14 March 2026 event.
- 02
Identify which visual clues in the key frames anchor the footage to its older, different-city context.
- 03
Write your findings separating [Fact] entries (dated evidence) from [Inference] entries (your conclusions).
- 04
Give a publish / do-not-publish recommendation for a newsroom and justify it in two sentences.
Evidence Notebook
Use this panel to log individual threads of evidence. Your entries are saved locally in this browser only.
No evidence records logged yet.
Report Drafting Board
# CSINT Incident Lab Report ## Research Question Does the viral clip show a live strike at Meridian Port on 14 March 2026, and should a newsroom publish it? ## Summary No analyst summary provided yet. ## Fact - No forensic facts recorded in the notebook. ## Signal - No analytical signals logged. ## Inference - No alternative explanations recorded. ## Recommendation - No next-pivot recommendations recorded. ## Confidence Low ## Limitations No limitation notes entered. ## Source reliability Not assessed. Annotate each source with its reliability tier before publishing. ## Information validity Not assessed. Confirm whether each item is directly observed, reported, or inferred. ## Missing context Not recorded. List what data is missing or could not be verified from public sources. ## Next safe steps - No next safe steps specified. ## Sources used - No source references listed. --- Generated at: 2026-07-24T18:30:26.447Z