Provenance Lens

Content Provenance for Newsrooms

A newsroom workflow for checking submitted images, recording provenance evidence and documenting what a result does not establish.

Updated: Published by Provenance Lens

Before publication

  • Retain the submitted original when possible.
  • Run the browser or CLI check and archive the JSON report.
  • Record both the evidence and its limits in the editorial decision.

Evidence, not guessing

Provenance Lens reports only what can be checked: a cryptographically signed manifest, a metadata field, a specific codepoint, a documented provider mechanism. When a signal cannot be checked, it says so. It never converts silence into a verdict.

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.

Primary sources