Jan 12, 2021

Hany Farid Explains Signs That Pelosi Letter Was Faked

From FactCheck.Org

Fake Letter Attributed to Pelosi Generates Anger Online

By Saranac Hale Spencer

A letter purported to be from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and aimed at inflaming political division has been circulating on social media.

The letter is fake, Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, told us in an email...

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in digital forensics, analyzed the image circulating on social media and found a change in color that indicates the document was altered:

“You can see that the logo and signature have a different background than the rest of the image,” Farid wrote in an email to FactCheck.org, after adjusting the contrast to emphasize the brightest part of the image. “My guess is that these were lifted from a separate document with a slightly more yellow tint, and pasted into a new document.”

Read more...

Hany Farid is the Associate Dean and Head of School for the School of Information.

Last updated:

January 20, 2021