I thought it would be easy.
The rise of fake news bloggers and peddlers is nothing new. But the sheer audacity of some of these actors, thriving in the wild, lawless landscapes of social media, is remarkable. They don’t just spread misinformation; they mold narratives, ignite outrage, and sometimes even influence real-world policies. Frustratingly, many of them operate from the shadows—faceless, nameless, and seemingly untraceable.
As someone who enjoys tinkering with OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence), I wondered: How hard could it be to track these people down? Metadata—specifically EXIF data—seemed like a good place to start. EXIFTool, a powerful open-source tool, can pull out hidden metadata from photos and videos, revealing crucial details like camera models, timestamps, and even GPS coordinates.
If a fake news peddler carelessly uploaded an original image without scrubbing the metadata, could it lead back to them?
The Digital Footprint You Didn’t Know You Left
Before we dive into the technical side of tracking fake news bloggers, let’s take a step back and talk about metadata. It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean?
Simply put, metadata is data about data. When you take a photo or record a video, your device automatically embeds details such as the date, time, location, and camera settings. This information, known as EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, can be extracted using tools like EXIFTool.
While this metadata can be useful for organizing files, it can also be a digital footprint that reveals sensitive details.
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The Hunt for Hidden Metadata
Excited, I ran some tests, determined to uncover how fake news bloggers intersect when it comes to metadata. I used yt-dlp to download videos from YouTube, tried extracting metadata from images using EXIFTool, and even attempted to retrieve the original uploaded images from Facebook through URL manipulation. Then, I eagerly awaited the results.
Nothing.
No GPS coordinates.
No timestamps.
No camera details.
Social media platforms had scrubbed everything clean. Every major platform—from Facebook to YouTube—strips out identifying metadata from uploaded images and videos, making it nearly impossible to use fake news peddlers investigations to trace bad actors through metadata alone. This is a privacy feature, ensuring that no one can track you down from a simple photo. This is great for regular users who don’t want to be doxxed.
But it’s also a gift to bad actors who exploit these platforms to spread fake news and then disappear into the ether.
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Metadata Extraction: How It Can Work
While social media platforms strip metadata, there are still ways to retrieve it—if you can access the original file. Here are a few approaches:
- Storage Devices & Physical Phones: If you obtain the original file from a device, EXIF metadata remains intact. Investigators often retrieve data directly from a suspect’s phone or external storage.
- Cloud Storage Services: Platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox may preserve metadata unless the file is reprocessed. Downloading an unaltered version from these services can reveal crucial details.
- Altered Versions & Screenshots: If an original file is unavailable, lower-quality versions (e.g., social media reuploads) may still hold clues, such as watermarks, compression artifacts, or hidden metadata in thumbnails.
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Social Media and Fake News Bloggers
It turns out social media companies, despite their many flaws, prioritize privacy over traceability—at least when it comes to user metadata. While they might struggle with curbing fake news, they are highly effective at preventing their users from being tracked via EXIF data.
This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, law-abiding, privacy-conscious users benefit from this protection.
No one should be able to extract your home address from a vacation photo you post online.
On the other hand, this also means that fake news peddlers, scammers, and even fugitives can exploit these same protections to evade accountability.
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The Verdict: A Secure Yet Flawed System
So where does that leave us in the fight against fake news bloggers? If you’re hoping to track them down using metadata alone, you’re out of luck. The platforms have locked that door. But should we be angry at them for it? Or should we acknowledge that this is part of a broader privacy framework meant to protect everyone—not just the guilty?
What do you think? Should social media platforms allow more traceability to combat fake news, or is privacy worth the trade-off?
Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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