Tool for journalists: Pipl, for verifying social media sources

What is it? Tool for seeking out social networks belonging to a particular person

How is it of use to journalists? One way to help verify content from social media is to ensure the information has been posted by a real person, rather than a fake or hoax account.

Pipl can help with this by tracking down a person's profile on other social networks.

If someone has a number of established social media profiles under the same name and a decent number of followers, they are more likely to be genuine.

Described by the BBC's Trushar Barot as "the most comprehensive tool we've found" for tracking multiple social media accounts for one person, Pipl allows users to search by name, username, email address or phone number as well as by location.


Screenshot from Pipl.com showing the tool's online interface

Click the 'Profiles' tab under 'Possibly related results' and you will get a list of that person's accounts on a range of social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.

Users can also see public records on sites like 192.com.

Pipl could also be useful for journalists trying to find information on a particular person.

Hat tip: Trushar Barot

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