Fact check: Photo of Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel with Black Marines is authentic

Published April 13, 2022

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USA Today quotes Siwei Lyu, Empire Innovation Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, in a fact check article on a social media claim that a campaign ad showing a conservative Ohio senatorial candidate with Black Marines was doctored.

Lyu, a digital forensics expert, told USA Today in an email that the original photo is too low-quality to make a reliable analysis. But common evidence of manipulation – such as splicing, unnatural boundaries and duplicate regions – is not present in the photo used in the ad, USA Today reports. "It is unlikely to me that this image was a result of photoshop editing, at least there is no clear clue suggesting (that)," Lyu said. 

Read the story here.