Thread by @brechtcastel

This picture was put online in Denmark 🇩🇰, shared 424K times and viewed by 44M people. 😲

@snopes and @Knack got in contact with this woman for a #FactCheck. How did we find her? 👇👇👇1/...

#OSINT 🔎
#GeoLocation 🌎
#Verification 📸
#HowTo #SpeurJeMee?🧐

@snopes @Knack No luck with inverse image search (Google, Yandex, Bing and TinEye) to find the original context.😢

No useful visual clues in the picture (logos, street signs, …) 😢

The road looks American 🇺🇸, but we don't have much to start with… 2/...

@snopes @Knack If we find the exact location of the picture, we might find the original context which could lead to identifying the woman. This is the reason for #GeoLocation 📍. 3/...

@snopes @Knack If we find pictures of the same cardboard and the same woman, they might have more visual clues.

Facebook Search can "read" text on pictures, so we use this feature and search for "573 days" and nurse.

We find another picture with the same woman! 😃 4/...

@snopes @Knack This photo contains a little more potentially useful visual elements.

On a street sign we read "parkway" 🟥 and in the background we see a green sign with the letters "NTERRA" on it 🟨. 5/...

@snopes @Knack This picture was put online by a guy from New Hampshire, but the visual clues are still to little to find the exact spot where this picture was taken.

We can not Google Maps all "parkways" in New Hampshire... 😠6/...

@snopes @Knack Another woman in the picture 🟪 helps us. 🥳

We find more pictures of her on Facebook, including this one. 👇

In this third picture we can read a full street name: "Centerra Parkway"🟨. 7/...

@snopes @Knack We find this street in Google Maps (google.com/maps/@43.67425…) and compare it to the second picture: WE HAVE A MATCH! 8/...

@snopes @Knack If we stay at this same spot in Google Maps📍and turn a bit to the left we can also find the visual elements on the first picture: the power lines 🟨, the traffic lights 🟥 and the road markings 🟦. 9/...

@snopes @Knack First task accomplished: we have geolocated the picture! 🎉

It was taken at the intersection of Hanover Street and Centerra Parkway in Lebanon, New Hampshire. 🌎

The pictures we used were put online the 7th of August. ⏲️10/...

@snopes @Knack Why were these people protesting at that rather banal intersection near the town of Lebanon? 🤔

What is striking is that near that intersection , where all three of the examined photos were taken, is a large private hospital: the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center 🟥. 11/...

@snopes @Knack Among photos of the demonstration on Facebook, we also come across a photo 🟥 that reads "no forced vax" and the web address suedhmc.com. 12/...

@snopes @Knack "Sue DHMC" stands for "sue Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center".

The organization "Liberty Defense Coalition" wants to sue the network of hospitals because as of August 3th a covid vaccine is mandatory for employees of that hospital network. 13/...

@snopes @Knack We Google for news about Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and find this article from @ConMonitorNews: concordmonitor.com/Opponents-of-D… 14/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews Here you see the ceo of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center explain why they make covid vaccines mandatory for their employees. 15/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews At the intersection the protesters compare the ceo of DHMC to doctor and SS officer Josef Mengele, who worked at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

According to the protesters, they would both do "forced experiments". 🤦16/...

https://twitter.com/GraniteDoc/status/1425900019157282822

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews Task 2 accomplished! 🎉

We know the #context of the picture now: a protest against mandated vaccination of employees at DHMC.

But can we identify the woman? Is she a real nurse?
17/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews We scan social media posts (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube...) about the local protest. 📸🎥

We look for people who interact enthusiastically on these posts AND who look like the woman in the picture ( same hair color, same jawline...) 🔎18/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews Our best option is someone with a private Instagram-profile, but we find pictures of her on other social platforms.

The physical resemblance between the photos we find of this woman and the woman in the photo under investigation is striking. 💯 19/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews (Because the woman in the photo wishes to remain anonymous, I'll not share these pictures.)

In a public photo on Facebook from August 1st (left), the woman is also wearing the same shoes as during the protest (right). 20/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg (@snopes) did find her name on a list of registered nurses in the state of New Hampshire. So she is effectively an American healthcare worker. ✅ 21/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg We get in contact with her, but she didn't want to answer our questions.

❓ Did she work with covid patients? Didn't she got covid herself? Is she unvaccinated? We don't know.

Everything we could find is in this article: snopes.com/fact-check/cov… 22/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg One thing is definetly NOT TRUE. ❌

It's not possible the woman had been working with corona patients "for 573 days".

573 days earlier - counting from August 7, 2021 - the date the photo was taken - it was January 12, 2020. 23/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg The first confirmed corona case in the 🇺🇸 did not occur until January 20, 2020.

The first confirmed case in New Hampshire wasn't even there until March 2, 2020. 24/...

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg This investigation was a collaboration among 🇧🇪 @Knack, 🇺🇸 @snopes (@danmacg) and 🇩🇰 @TjekDet (@abedrengen1791).

🙏for the nice sharing of knowledge, guys!

My #FactCheck (in Dutch) right here. 👇25/27

knack.be/nieuws/factche…

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg @TjekDet @abedrengen1791 What have we learned? 👩‍🏫

1) If your starting picture doesn't have enough clues, find other pictures with the same people and objects, . 📸
2) Use Facebook Search, because it can "read" text in pictures. 🔤
3) For viral pictures international collaboration is the way to go! 🌍💪

@snopes @Knack @ConMonitorNews @danmacg @TjekDet @abedrengen1791 Did you like this 🧵with #OSINT for #FactChecking?

I have more (in Dutch #SpeurJeMee?🧐, but very visual) underneath this tweet. 👇

And follow me @brechtcastel for upcoming investigations! 🍻

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1390688405416198145

WOOOOW, after a few days this thread was retweeted over 2K times. 😮⚡️

Thank you all so much for reading and sharing. 🙏🙏

Underneath this tweet 👇 you'll find more of my investigations and an explanation WHY I make threads like this. 👋

https://twitter.com/brechtcastel/status/1432642866434674690