Lesson plan: How to spot fake screenshots on social media

Materials

• Lesson outline
• Student handout
• Projector
• Computers and Internet connection
• Links to fake screenshot identification tools
  • Joe Biden Twitter account link for application activity
  • Mary J Blige Twitter account link for application activity
• Background Reading
  • Politifact’s fact check of the tweet
  • Journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh’s Fake tweet screenshot explainer

Dubawa’s How to identify fake social media screenshots

Activator  (5 minutes)

Display this tweet or a similar one. Ask students if they notice anything odd about this tweet.

1. Pepsi would never say that
2. @PEPICO =/ @PEPSI
3. White check-mark
4. No “official” designation

Explain that social media generator apps and websites have made it easy to create fake screenshots to impersonate an individual or organization online to spread misinformation. This is an example that happened when Elon Musk briefly instituted the $8 checkmark program. Although this one is Satire and easier to identify, many others are not.

Acquisition (15 minutes)

Activator: How can you check a social media screenshot to verify its source?

This tweet — seemingly from a well-known news organization’s social media account  — creates a strong emotional response that makes it more likely people will share it out of shock. That’s exactly when you need to check it out.

1- What clues might indicate the screenshot is not from CNN? 1. The user name at the top is not a news source. Need to check the account. 2.  It is very minute, but the placement of the @CNN is too low. 3. The photo is already clearly edited with the text on top. What else was edited?

2- What techniques or online tools could you use to verify that it is from CNN? 1. Check CNN’s social media stream directly. 2. Check CNN’s website and other social media for the story. 3. Do a reverse image search.

Explain that they will watch a video from the MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network that demonstrates four ways to check an online screenshot to verify if it is real. Ask them to track the four techniques on their student handout as they will need to use those tools in an activity.

1. There is no link to the original tweet — cannot interact with it

2. Go to the referenced account and scroll to the original tweet or social media post. Explain what each of these two online tools do that can help identify a fake screenshot on social media:

• The Wayback Machine tool to find deleted Tweets
• Fotoforensics tool to identify digitally altered images

3. Look for errors or discrepancies in formatting

4. Try a keyword search

Application (15 Minutes)

Application: “One of these things is not like the other activity”. Compare and contrast these posts: Identify differences between the fake screenshots and real Tweets. Note that these fakes also happened during Elon Musk’s brief introduction of the $8 checkmark and are examples of satire, but are still good to note how to recognize fakes.

Fake Tweet Screenshot	Real Tweets	Similarities and differences
		Similar: checkmark, Name, logo Different: white v. blue checkmark, logo missing blue perimeter, @name, “official” designation
		Similar: checkmark, logo Different: @name, Nestle v. Nestle US, “official” designation
		Similar: checkmark, logo Different: @name, Nestle v. Nestle US, “official” designation

Assessment (5 Minutes)

“What’s the Big Idea?” Discussion Questions

1. What is the motivation behind posting a fake screenshot?

2. How do fake screenshots help spread misinformation?

3. List at least two visual clues you can look for to identify a fake screenshot:

1-

2-

Extension and refining activity — ticket out the door

Put these fact-checking tips to the test. One of these tweets below was a fake screenshot and the other is real and posted by the owner of the Twitter account. Mark one as “Fake” and one as “Real”:

Joe Biden never posted this. That can be verified by scrolling through his social media account or using the The Wayback Machine and entering his account URL and searching for that date: https://twitter.com/JoeBiden

Also the formatting is missing the phrase United States government official

Mary J. Blige actually did tweet this. You can still find her follow-up tweet (which also contains a misspelling – oof) on her twitter feed from the next day: 

Explain how you verified each post.

Answers vary

Additional Resources

• Politifact’s fact check of the tweet
• Journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh’s Fake tweet screenshot explainer
• Dubawa’s How to identify fake social media screenshots
• MediaWise “Is This Legit?” series
• How to combat political misinformation from PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs
• Fact-checking lesson for Student Journalists
• Misinformation Overload: Interviews from PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs
• StoryMaker Media Literacy Learning
• 10 tips to spot media misinformation
• Journalism in Action, a history of journalism in the U.S., including political satire, from PBS NewsHour Classroom

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MediaWise is a digital media literacy initiative of the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Now in over 170 middle and high schools, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a national youth journalism program that trains teenagers across the country to produce stories that highlight the achievements and challenges today’s youth face.