Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in visual reasoning and text generation. While previous studies have explored the application of MLLM for detecting out-of-context (OOC) misinformation, our empirical analysis reveals two persisting challenges of this paradigm. Evaluating the representative GPT-4o model on direct reasoning and evidence augmented reasoning, results indicate that MLLM struggle to capture the deeper relationships—specifically, cases in which the image and text are not directly connected but are associated through underlying semantic links. Moreover, noise in the evidence further impairs detection accuracy.To address these challenges, we propose CMIE, a novel OOC misinformation detection framework that incorporates a Coexistence Relationship Generation (CRG) strategy and an Association Scoring (AS) mechanism. CMIE identifies the underlying coexistence relationships between images and text, and selectively utilizes relevant evidence to enhance misinformation detection. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing methods.

The widespread use of social networks has significantly accelerated the dissemination of information but has also facilitated the rapid spread of fake news, leading to various negative consequences. Recently, with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), researchers have focused on leveraging LLMs for automated fake news detection. Unfortunately, many issues remain to be addressed. First, the evidence retrieved to verify given fake news is often insufficient, limiting the performance of LLMs when reasoning directly from this evidence. Additionally, the retrieved evidence frequently contains substantial redundant information, which can interfere with the LLMs’ judgment. To address these limitations, we propose a Multiple Knowledge Sources Retrieval and LLM Knowledge Conversion framework, which enriches the evidence available for claim verification. We also introduce a Redundant Information Filtering Strategy, which minimizes the influence of irrelevant information on the LLM reasoning process. Extensive experiments conducted on two challenging fact-checking datasets demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art fact-checking baselines. Our code is available at https://github.com/quark233/IMRRF/tree/main.