Start with the obvious: reverse search and context
The first move is to find out whether the image is new. A reverse image search shows if the same picture already appeared somewhere else, earlier, which exposes recycled or miscaptioned media fast.
Context checks follow: do the weather, signage, shadow direction and the place in the frame match the claim? This catches a lot, but it says nothing about whether the file itself was edited or generated.
Read the metadata, then distrust it
Every file carries metadata: capture date, camera, sometimes GPS. It is a useful first read, so verifiers open it early.
The catch is that metadata is trivial to change or strip, and most platforms remove it on upload. A clean set of fields is not proof, and a missing set is not guilt. Treat it as a lead, never as evidence.
Provenance and AI detection answer two different questions
Provenance standards like C2PA Content Credentials attach a signed history to a file at creation, so a verifier can see where it came from and whether a tool flagged it as AI generated. It helps when it is present, but most media in the wild carries none.
An AI media detector answers a different question: it estimates how likely a file is to be AI generated or edited and returns a probability with a confidence score. It is a strong triage step, not a verdict, because detectors and generators keep leapfrogging each other.
The missing piece: proof at capture
Every method above inspects a file after the fact. They share one gap: nothing in an ordinary photo proves when and where it was actually taken. That is why the question of which companies help publishers verify photos and videos usually ends in a layered process rather than one answer.
Danaya closes that gap at the source. The person on site opens a capture link, photographs live with no app and no account, and each file is sealed at capture: a SHA-256 fingerprint, GPS and a server timestamp, all signed, verifiable by anyone from a public link. It does not replace reverse search, metadata or detection. It adds the one thing they cannot give, a definite record of time, place and integrity. It is a complement, never an official certification.