During the Umbrella revolution, the University of Hong Kong’s journalism students became savvy journalists and avid fact checkers. They mostly relied on good old-fashioned phone calling to verify information. But there are plenty of things you can do online to verify without phone numbers.
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Find out if that post was made by a real person or a bot with Bot or Not.
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Get Youtube video data with Amnesty International’s Youtube DataViewer.
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Not sure that email exists? Look it up on Email Checker.
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Trace a user’s GeoSocial Footprint and check location data.
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Investigate any user’s profile in just a few clicks with WebMii.
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Need a source? Find contact information on Pipl.com.
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Here are some other easy-to-use resources:
Reverse image search on TinEye
Reverse image searching from your mobile phone with QTRLQ
Download the Storyful Chrome plugin to help verify news on the spot
When looking at news on social media, look for verifications from trusted verification sources like Bellingcat and CheckDesk.
Hungry for more? Here are some great tutorials that will make you a verification pro in no time:
The International Journalists’ Network
How to check the upload time of an Instagram post