Provenance Lens
What Is C2PA?
A practical guide to C2PA Content Credentials, signed manifests, trust validation and the limits of provenance evidence.
A signed provenance record
C2PA defines a format for signed manifests that can record who issued a claim, which assertions it contains and whether its signature validates.
What validation establishes
Validation can establish that a manifest has not been altered since signing. It does not establish that every statement inside the manifest is true.
What a report cannot prove
- A valid signature proves who signed a manifest, not that the manifest's claims are true.
- Metadata is trivially editable. Treat generator fields as an indication, never as proof.
- Hidden Unicode characters have many innocent causes, including ordinary copy-paste.