Spotting Deepfakes: Practical Detection Tips

Five years ago, deepfakes had giveaway tells: weird hands, wobbling teeth, mouths that didn't match the words. Today, the best ones are almost perfect to a casual eye. So the rule has flipped: you can't really detect a deepfake by looking — you have to investigate the source.

Tells that still sometimes work

• Hands and ears: small details still confuse some models
• Teeth and earrings: shapes that wobble between frames
• Hairlines: smudgy, dissolving edges
• Lighting that's wrong on the face vs the background
• The voice is a hair too smooth — no normal hesitations or breaths

The source check (more reliable)

1. 1Reverse image search: drag the image into Google Images or TinEye
2. 2Find the original post and original poster — not a screenshot of a screenshot
3. 3Check if a real news organization is reporting the same thing
4. 4If the video is shocking, ask: "who would benefit if I believed this?"
5. 5Wait 24 hours on outrage. Real news lasts. Hoaxes evaporate.

Try it: detective drill

Find an image that went viral this week. Reverse-image-search it. Trace it back to the first place it was posted. Check whether real outlets are reporting on it. The whole process takes about 5 minutes once you've done it once.