Firemen work in the area of Clapham in London on Tuesday in the aftermath of the riots.
(ELIZABETH DALZIEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
As images published by eyewitnesses to the London riots over the past three days continue to reach the Internet in real time, impostors are making their way into the mix.
This image was circulated as a burning building in London, but was actually from a January 2009 fire in China's Guangdong province.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The latest images aren’t even doctored, just photos submitted from other events. They’re easy enough to vet, but because of the breakneck speed at which social media can give context through imagery — and the speed at which “mainstream” media works to catch the flow — the photos have become representative of the London riots in their own right.
Monday evening, New York Times reporter Brian Stetler tweeted two images of a tiger that rumors said had escaped from the London Zoo. Stetler tagged the photos as unconfirmed, but Guardian reporter Richard Adams called him on it anyway, pointing out that no animals had escaped from the zoo.
In an effort to bring clarity to the calamity of breaking news, the Guardian’s data blog is tracking each outbreak of rioting across the U.K. after each event is verified. However, the blog is still allowing eyewitnesses to submit and geotag riot photos to its Flickr pool without similar vetting filters.
As the Arab Spring rolls into London Summer, there’s little need to continue talking about the power of Twitter to pull in real-time images and updates sent from places reporters aren’t yet able to reach. The task now is to ensure that the images shared at rapid speed are giving the appropriate context. One solution is to find and log inaccurate photos as quickly as possible.
TweetIf you find a photo that appears to be inaccurate, please tweet us using #BadLondonPhoto, tell us where it’s actually from and we’ll add more to this Storify:
Related London news:
Prime minister deploys 10,000 more police to stop rioting in London
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