Does a photo shared on social media during the May 22, 2023, attack on the Russian region of Belgorod by two paramilitary groups show the wife of the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, at an "international airport" with her "belonging
Publication: analysis
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Of Car Convoy Does NOT Show People Fleeing Belgorod, Russia After Pro-Ukraine Paramilitaries ‘Invaded’
Does a video of a long convoy of cars show residents of Belgorod, Russia evacuating their homes after Russian paramilitary groups fighting for Ukraine crossed the Russian-Ukraine border on May 22, 2023, and attacked the Belgorod region? N
Lead Stories→ Plag-AI-rism: How Lead Stories Used ChatGPT To Find A False Story about Tucker Carlson … That Was ‘Plagiarised’ With ChatGPT
So you've probably read all those warnings from pundits, academics and researchers about how generative AI tools like ChatGPT are going to impact disinformation and fact checking. And you may have even seen some recent examples of a deep-
Lead Stories→ Lead Stories Launches AI-Powered FactGPT Fact Checking Chatbot
As you could tell by the date, this was an April Fools' joke and we didn't really launch a mad conspiracy-spewing AI bot. Hope you enjoyed it! Colorado Springs - Award-winning fact checking organization Lead Stories is proud to announce t
Truth or Fiction?→ Donald Trump Holds Rally in Waco, 30 Years After Waco Siege
On March 24 2023, an Imgur account shared a tweet about former United States President Donald Trump staging a rally in Waco, Texas, from his niece Mary Trump: Donald has a rally in Waco this Saturday [March 25 2023]. It’s a ploy to remind his cu
Truth or Fiction?→ Mass Shootings, Violence in California Highlight Issue of Disinformation in Immigrant Communities
Two mass shootings in California in the first weeks of 2023, both committed by immigrants in their sixties, have highlighted the issue of disinformation and propaganda targeting American immigrant communities, and how the prods and pulleys of stochasti
Truth or Fiction?→ Brazil Insurrection Had Familiar Faces, Themes
A January 8 2023 attempted right-wing coup in Brazil’s capital Brasília followed the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (popularly known as “Lula”) over right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the South American nation’s pres
Lead Stories→ NewsBlaze CEO Appears Linked To Anonymous Anti-Vax Site GoodSciencing.com
This article lays out the evidence Alan Gray (CEO of alternative news site NewsBlaze) is quite likely the key person behind the anonymously published website named Real Science hosted on the domain name goodsciencing.com. It was recently
Lead Stories→ 2022 At Lead Stories: Debunking Claims About War, Vaccines and Elections; Debunking In Three New Languages & Defeating Lawsuits
The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian
Lead Stories→ Lead Stories Uncovers Network of Cambodian Websites Pushing Death Hoaxes On Facebook To Spread Malware
The celebrity death hoax has long been a clickbait staple, but recently one network has taken it to extremes, using scores of websites to host its content and an automated army of bots to push the links into Facebook groups. Many Facebook
Truth or Fiction?→ How to Fight Disinformation — Part V: Resilience Targeting
This is the last in a series about how communities can fight back and protect themselves against weaponized disinformation campaigns. You can read our previous articles here: Part I: Firehosing Part II: Gaslighting Part III: Distraction Part IV: Sign
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Earth Is NOT Hollow
Is the interior Earth actually hollow, with access points at the North and South Poles that lead to a mythical land that is home to superhumans and extraterrestrial beings with advanced technology? No, that's not true: Though treated as a
Truth or Fiction?→ Arrests of Anti-Monarchy Protesters
On September 11 and 12 2022, popular tweets claimed that individuals protesting the monarchy at ongoing public events in the UK were (in some cases) being cautioned, detained, or arrested: The police were far more eager to arrest a woman with an ab
Truth or Fiction?→ Fifth January 6 Hearing Shows Scope of Attempts to Undermine Democracy
The fifth hearing by the January 6 2021 committee covered the pressure that Donald Trump exerted on state and federal officials to call the U.S. presidential election in his favor in 2020 so that he could remain in power. The testimonials came on June
Truth or Fiction?→ Third January 6 Hearings Looks at Pressure, Disinformation Campaigns to Overturn Election
The third hearing by the House committee investigating the January 6 2021 insurrection focused on the pressure campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election — and the deeply corrosive weaponized narratives which undergirded the attempt. The
Truth or Fiction?→ Disinformation Takes Center Stage at January 6 Committee Hearings
The role of weaponized disinformation campaigns in the January 2021 attempted coup at the United States Capitol was the main topic at the second January 6 Committee hearing about the events that culminated in a violent insurrection. The House select
Truth or Fiction?→ Los Angeles County Sheriff Announces Plans to ‘Investigate’ Journalist Over Articles
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has announced plans to target a journalist for an “investigation” over her reporting on their treatment of a man in custody. Conspiracy theory-slinging Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villan
Truth or Fiction?→ Paper: Sweden and the ‘Herd Immunity’ Response to COVID-19
An academic paper attempting to make sense of Sweden’s COVID-19 “herd immunity” policy describes a cavalcade of preventable horrors. The article (which was published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications) was – in its own w
Lead Stories→ Several Red Flags Raised Over New Russian ‘Fact Checking’ Site WarOnFakes.com
Is the new Russian website "War on Fakes" a real and reliable fact checking website run by "experts and journalists"? We have questions. The site appeared to spring up almost overnight in early March 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasi
Lead Stories→ Lead Stories Launches Fact Checking In Russian and Ukrainian Alongside New "War" Category
Colorado Springs - In response to the escalating events and the outbreak of a war between Russia and Ukraine at the end of February 2022 Lead Stories today announces the launch of Russian and Ukrainian versions of its award-winning fact c
Poynter→ Twitter’s Birdwatch takes off for a test flight
When Russia invaded Ukraine last week, misinformation immediately went viral. While signatories of the International Fact-Checking Network verified images and videos depicting the war in a global database, citizen fact-checkers […] The post Twitt
Truth or Fiction?→ Russia Purportedly Planned ‘Public Executions’ in Ukraine
In early March 2022, as wild rumors, lies, half-truths, and weaponized disinformation campaigns lit up social media amid Russia’s war against Ukraine, posts began to appear referencing leaked Russian plans for “public executions” the
Lead Stories→ Context Matters: Why Lead Stories Fact Checked The BMJ
On November 10, 2021, Lead Stories published a fact check about an article published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on November 2, 2021. In response, the BMJ published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg on December 17, 2021, calling
Truth or Fiction?→ How to Fight Disinformation — Part IV: Signaling and Dog Whistling
This is part of an ongoing series about how communities can fight back and protect themselves against weaponized disinformation. The Trump administration may be just a memory, but the disinformation that paved its way and the lies that it launched are
Truth or Fiction?→ Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Reportedly Refuses to Wear a Mask
As the global COVID-19 pandemic dragged into its third year, “Gorsuch” trended on Twitter on January 18 2022, primarily due to tweets claiming that Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to wear a mask to work — which forces fello
Lead Stories→ An open letter to YouTube’s CEO from the world’s fact-checkers
Ms. Susan Wojcicki, It's been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The world has seen time and time again how destructive disinformation and misinformation can be for social harmony, democracy, and public health; too many
Lead Stories→ Lead Stories’ Response To BMJ Open Letter Objecting To A Lead Stories Fact Check
The British Medical Journal published an open letter on December 17, 2021 (archived here) taking issue with a Lead Stories fact check. Our response is below: It is ironic to read that BMJ.com objects to the headline on Lead Stories' fact
Lead Stories→ Pfizer Petitions Court For Identity of ‘Conservative Beaver’ Publisher — Lead Stories May Have Found Him
Wanted for Defamation On November 5, 2021, a website named Conservative Beaver published a false story about the CEO of Pfizer being arrested for fraud. It wasn't the first false story published by the website and it wouldn't be the last:
Truth or Fiction?→ Kenosha Homicide Trial Riddled With Disinformation, Weaponized Narratives
The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and wounded a third during a shooting spree in Kenosha, Wisconsin during protests against police brutality in August 2020, has made daily headlines nationally and internationally —
Truth or Fiction?→ Houston Police Attempt to Link ‘Drug Spiking’ to Fatal Astroworld Concert
Houston police attempted to link an alleged injection “attack” to the chaos at a November 2021 concert that culminated in the deaths of eight people and injuries to more than 300 others. Local police chief Troy Finner first pushed the claim
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Mike Lindell Cyber Symposium Final Wrap-Up, August 12, 2021 — No PCAP Evidence, Questions Remain
Did the materials released by Mike Lindell at his Cyber Symposium meet evidentiary standards of relevance, proof of origin, chain-of-secure-custody and reproducibility that online security experts say would be needed to take seriously his
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Several New Pieces of Evidence Link Mike Lindell’s Election Data and Videos To Accused Con Man Dennis L. Montgomery
After Mike Lindell's appearance on the April 28, 2021, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show, Lead Stories published a story titled "Attention Mike Lindell: What You May Want To Know About The 'Data' Used In Your Stolen Election Claims" that traced s
Lead Stories→ Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium Started: We’re Looking For These Answers About His Promised Election Fraud Evidence
Will the materials Mike Lindell releases at his Cyber Symposium meet evidentiary standards of authenticity to support his claim the 2020 election was stolen? Here's how Lead Stories will test the data: By asking the questions we sent to h
Lead Stories→ The Answers We Will Be Looking For During Mike Lindell’s Cyber-Symposium About Election Fraud Evidence
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has produced four video documentaries so far, all claiming to show evidence of fraud in the November 2020 election. Lead Stories has previously looked into these videos here, here, here and here and found there w
Truth or Fiction?→ Anatomy of an Inauthentically Organized Campaign
In mid-2021, as the Delta variant rapidly spread among unvaccinated populations across the United States and public officials began publicly flirting with the prospect of still more measures to quell the spread of the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemi
Truth or Fiction?→ Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Campaign Echoes ‘Doctor’s Plot’ Rhetoric
An ongoing medical disinformation campaign took a sharp turn in July 2021, when right-wing commentators and politicians pivoted to direct attacks against continued efforts by the Biden administration to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19. T
Truth or Fiction?→ The ‘Critical Race Theory’ Coordinated Disinformation Campaign
An inauthentically organized, corrosive disinformation campaign taking direct aim at social resilience and anti-racism pushes has taken over school boards throughout the United States in what appears to be a highly coordinated national push — whi
Lead Stories→ Lead Stories Staff Wins 2020 Sigma Delta Chi Award For Covid-19 Fact-Checking
The Lead Stories staff was just awarded a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi Award by The Society of Professional Journalists for our Covid-19 fact checking. We are very happy and honored to have been chosen and will strive to continue our fact checkin
Truth or Fiction?→ Foreign Influence Agents Goaded Trump Forums After U.S. Elections, Researchers Say
Foreign agents — particularly those working from or on behalf of Russia — were active on Donald Trump-themed forums in the weeks and months leading up to the January 6 2021 coup attempt at the United States Capitol, a new report says. Accor
Truth or Fiction?→ International Disinfo Machines Turning After State-Sponsored Kidnapping of Belarusian Journalist
On May 24 2021, in the hours and days after Belarusian dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was taken from a Ryanair flight that had been rediverted to Minsk and arrested along with his girlfriend, graduate student Sofia Sapega, in a dramatic state-