424. Why does TTG say that photographers are “staking their reputation” on the TTG label each time they use it in a trusted context?

Because by definition a “trusted context” is one in which viewers trust what they see or read, so anyone who violates that trust in that context is likely to suffer damage to their reputation.

An integral part of the TTG model is that photographers can damage their reputation if — in a trusted context — they inappropriately label even just a single photograph as “TTG” (or when they fail to add an “IC” alert when an alert is warranted).

History shows there are consequences

In large areas of social media, “anything goes,” with little or no verification and thus few if any consequences.

But elsewhere, “trusted contexts” are trusted for a reason: viewers respect them and take seriously what is said and published in those contexts.

Multiple high-profile “undisclosed manipulation” incidents in the past four decades have demonstrated that when publishing in a reputable context, it can be very difficult for a photographer to fully erase from the Internet a public misstep.

That difficulty is amplified when a third-party image provider points out that it was the photographer — not the provider — who had inappropriately labeled a photograph as TTG (as image providers are allowed to point out; see #2 here).