#goupstream

By: Faith Ortega

While scrolling on Instagram the other day, I stumbled across a deeply troubling image with thousands of likes. The posted photo showcased a car entirely swallowed into the ground by a sinkhole. Not only did I find this to be terrifying, but I also found it to be extreme. In many scenarios, viral photographs with extreme content carry the possibility of being fraudulent.  Before letting my emotions of fright take over, I made sure to verify the image by going upstream.

Going upstream to validate information is done by finding the original source. In this case, no source is provided by the post in the caption or directly on the photograph. The caption, however, explains the context of the sinkhole in the image. According to the post, the sinkhole occurred in Irondequoit, New York on St. Paul. When looking up this location, St. Paul Boulevard in Irondequoit, New York seems to be a real place. 

Additionally, the Instagram account titled “rocgonemad” seems to post about events in Rochester, New York. Although the account has nearly 76 thousand followers, this doesn’t make it a reputable source. So, I continued my path going upstream.

The first step I took was typing “sinkhole in Irondequoit New York” into Google. This pulled up a number of websites. Looking through the first few results, I noticed that the third result had an ABC News logo on its icon, which led me to believe it was a local news source. https://13wham.com/news/local/sinkhole-swallows-car-st-paul-boulevard-irondequoit-rochester-rescuer

After clicking the third link, I was brought to the 13 ABC WHAM website, which happens to be a local news source for Rochester, New York. Because this supposed sinkhole occurred in the Rochester area, this source already began to validate the initial Instagram post. Next, I clicked the photo gallery located at the top of the article which seemed to include a replica photo of the one provided by “rocgonemad”.

The gallery stated that the sinkhole photograph was provided by Anthony DiSalvo. After reading more, the article explains that Anthony DiSalvo was a bystander on the day of the sinkhole who rushed outside when he heard a loud crash. DiSalvo found a car in a sinkhole and was shocked to find a woman stuck in the car. With the help of a neighbor, DiSalvo pulled the woman out. The article also verifies that the sinkhole happened on August 16, 2023, in Irondequoit, New York on St. Paul Boulevard.