Verify before you amplify: the five questions I ask before forwarding anything

In one of our sessions with the Youth Empowerment Project, a big banner stood behind the trainers: Verify Before You Amplify. I took a photo of it and set it as my phone wallpaper, because I knew I would need the reminder.

Before the training, I forwarded things the way most of us do in Lebanon: a voice note in the family group, a screenshot from a page I don't know, an "urgent" warning about a road or a power cut. If it looked important, I passed it on. Now I stop and ask five questions first.

The five questions

1. Who is speaking? Is there a name, an outlet or an official account behind it, or just "a friend of a friend"?
2. When was it published? Old photos and videos come back every time something happens. A date can change the whole meaning.
3. Where else is it reported? If a story is real and big, more than one reliable source will have it.
4. What does it want from me? Anger, fear and "share before it's deleted" are red flags.
5. Can I check the picture? A reverse image search takes less than a minute and often shows where a photo really comes from.

Forwarding is publishing. The moment you press send, you become part of the story.

None of this takes long. Most of the time, two or three questions are enough to decide. And when I can't find an answer, I simply don't forward it. Silence is also a choice.

If you want a short explanation of why false stories travel so far, the video below helped our group a lot.