The IPTC has developed a WordPress plugin that automatically signs all images and video content published on a WordPress site. It has been put to use to automatically sign all images attached to IPTC news posts, such as this one, at the moment of publishing. 

Based on our library of signing tools which are available to IPTC members, the “C2PA Signer” plugin  takes action when a WordPress user publishes a new post. The plugin automatically retrieves all images (in all available sizes) and signs each image using the private key associated with the publisher.

The tool also extracts relevant metadata from WordPress. Each image’s caption, alt text, image upload date and publish date are embedded into the signed C2PA Manifest using an early version of the Origin IPTC Verified News Publisher metadata assertion. The specification of this assertion is currently in flux and the example assertion should not be relied on for production use, although the assertion is supported by the IPTC’s C2PA validator tool, Origin Verify.

Click here to view the image’s signed metadata using the  Origin Verify tool.

This is in line with the goals of our IPTC Origin Verified News Publisher project, whereby publishers sign their own content using their own certificate. This enables publishers to take ownership of their content and to assert important facts about their content at the time of publishing.

In related news, the IPTC now has its own C2PA certificate, issued by GlobalSign under the IPTC’s official name, “Comite International des Telecommunications de Presse.” This means that the IPTC can be the first entity to use the new plugin.

“We are very happy to launch the new WordPress plugin, which we of course are using on our own website,” says Brendan Quinn, Managing Director, IPTC. “We believe that this makes us the first organisation to routinely sign all images that we publish using our C2PA credentials.” 

The certificates, manifests and the signed content are fully compatible with the latest version of C2PA, version 2.1. Images that we publish (including the image on this post) can be verified using the Origin Verify validator or the C2PA Content Credentials Verify validator.

For more information, contact IPTC using the Contact Us form.