How to Tell If Something Is a Deepfake, and Prove It
How to spot a deepfake, the detector tools that can help, and the critical step most people skip: preserving evidence (URLs, screenshots, archives) before you report, plus how to find other copies with reverse image search.
To tell if something is a deepfake, look for mismatched lighting, blurring where the face meets hair or neck, odd eyes, teeth, or hands, and, in video, unnatural blinking or off lip-sync. Detector tools can help but are not certain. Most importantly, before you report anything, preserve the evidence: URLs, dated screenshots, and archived copies.
Content often vanishes the moment you report it. Preserve evidence before reporting, so you keep proof for platforms, police, or a lawyer. The steps are below.
How to spot a deepfake
No single sign is proof, but several together are a strong signal. In images, look for:
- Lighting or skin tone that does not match between the face and the rest of the body.
- Blurring, smearing, or warping where the face meets hair, ears, neck, or glasses.
- Irregular eyes, teeth, or jewellery, and asymmetric or melted-looking details.
- Backgrounds that bend or repeat oddly near the edges of the figure.
- Hands and fingers that look wrong, a common giveaway in AI images.
In video, also watch for unnatural or rare blinking, lip movements that do not quite match the audio, flickering at the edge of the face, and a face that seems to “float” slightly against the head when the person moves.
Detector tools can help, but are not proof
Several services claim to detect AI-generated or manipulated media. They can be a useful second opinion, but accuracy varies and the technology is a moving target on both sides. Treat a detector result as supporting evidence, not a verdict, and never rely on it alone when escalating.
Preserve the evidence (step by step)
This protects you for every route that follows, platform reports, Google removal, police, or a lawyer.
- ✓ Copy the exact URL of every place you find it.
- ✓ Take dated screenshots that clearly show the URL, the date, and the account that posted it.
- ✓ Archive each page using the Wayback Machine or archive.today, so a copy exists even if the original is deleted.
- ✓ Record the account details (username, profile link, display name) and a simple log of dates and times.
- ✓ Keep any source photo the fake was likely built from; it can help prove manipulation.
Store all of this somewhere safe and private. You may never need it, but if you do, you will be very glad you saved it.
Find the other copies
Deepfakes often appear in more than one place. To find copies you have not seen:
- Reverse image search a screenshot or frame using Google Lens or another reverse-image tool.
- Search your name together with related terms the way others might.
- Set up alerts in Google’s “Results about you” so you are notified when new results mentioning you appear, see removing a deepfake from Google.
What not to do
- Do not contact or threaten the person who posted it. It can escalate the situation and complicate any case.
- Do not re-share or repost the content, even to warn others; it can spread it further and may flag your account.
- Do not delete your evidence after the content comes down.
Now take it down
With evidence saved, move to removal: register intimate images with StopNCII or Take It Down, report it on the platform, and remove it from Google. If you are not sure of the order, the action-plan tool on our home page builds a sequence for your exact situation.