ACL2026
From Detection to Understanding: Multi-Turn Reasoning for Video Misinformation Analysis
Zhi Zeng, Jiaying Wu, Minnan Luo, Di Zhang, Yifei Yang, Xiangzheng Kong, Herun Wan, Zihan Ma
Abstract
Video misinformation detection is often approached as a binary veracity classification problem, overlooking the complex reasoning required to explain how and why content misleads. Existing benchmarks fail to capture the diversity of manipulation strategies, such as AI-generated edits and out-of-context manipulation, and do not evaluate whether models can provide process-level justifications for their judgments. We address these limitations with MISVIDEOQA, a multi-turn benchmark designed to assess comprehensive understanding and reasoning in video misinformation analysis. MISVIDEOQA covers 12 fine-grained video categories and evaluates models along six dimensions, progressing from perceptual attribution to intent and persuasion analysis. Recognizing that standard MLLMs struggle to sustain such structured, evidence-based deduction, we propose MISAGENT, a Delphiinspired multi-agent framework in which specialized agents collaboratively integrate multimodal cues with external evidence. Experimental results show that state-of-the-art multimodal large language models perform poorly on MISVIDEOQA, while MISAGENT consistently improves reasoning accuracy and explanation quality. Together, our benchmark and framework establish a unified foundation for reliable, interpretable, and evidence-grounded video misinformation analysis. 1