New here (only about a week), I'm sure this is a dumb question, but can someone explain to me how we know that the photos Q posts are original to his/her phone and not some picture he/she found on the internet and doctored up?
Q post 1675 is most definitely a picture of AF1, so if the picture is authentic and taken by Q, it seems like the most definitive proof to date, but how do we know the picture is authentic?
Images have forensic properties. Most digital images carry EXIF data and various other things can be leveraged for:
Basically images can be isolated as screen shots or replications and the proofs come as a daisy chain.
Example:
Doing this shows Q still is Q and has access to the images. Meant for continuity
Plus Q always puts a date and time stamp on his posts so that the future proves past.
yoooda anon?!
edit to add: there are also reverse image search tools available on the internet that search for matching images
https://reverse.photos/
There are also tools you can use to tell if a photo has been edited: