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This study audits Google Reverse Image Search (RIS) to understand its role in shaping information exposure during visual misinformation fact-checking. The authors analyzed 34,486 top-ranked search results from RIS queries using newly identified misleading images over a 15-day period. Results show that RIS returns a high volume of irrelevant information and repeated misinformation, while debunking content struggles for visibility, exhibiting an inverted U-shaped curve in quality over time.
Reverse image search, a key tool for visual fact-checking, often amplifies misinformation and irrelevant content, burying debunking information.
As visual misinformation becomes increasingly prevalent, platform algorithms act as intermediaries that curate information for users'verification practices. Yet, it remains unclear how algorithmic gatekeeping tools, such as reverse image search (RIS), shape users'information exposure during fact-checking. This study systematically audits Google RIS by reversely searching newly identified misleading images over a 15-day window and analyzing 34,486 collected top-ranked search results. We find that Google RIS returns a substantial volume of irrelevant information and repeated misinformation, whereas debunking content constitutes less than 30% of search results. Debunking content faces visibility challenges in rankings amid repeated misinformation and irrelevant information. Our findings also indicate an inverted U-shaped curve of RIS results page quality over time, likely due to search engine"data voids"when visual falsehoods first appear. These findings contribute to scholarship of visual misinformation verification, and extend algorithmic gatekeeping research to the visual domain.
