Did Max Loughan, a 13-year-old who gained fame in 2016 for creating an "energy harvesting device," disappear for "about six years"? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that Loughan was or is missing or hiding. A video posted by his s
Publication: Fact Check
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Orange Dot On iPhone Does NOT Mean Someone Is Listening To You
Does the orange dot on the iPhone mean someone is listening to you or spying on you? No, that's missing context: A cyber security expert told Lead Stories the orange circle is a warning from Apple that the microphone is being used by an a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Merkel Does NOT Say In Interview That U.S., NATO Planned War In Ukraine Against Russia
Did former German Chancellor Angela Merkel reveal in an interview plans by the United States and NATO for war in Ukraine with Russia? No, that's not true: Nowhere in her interview with the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, which wa
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT File A Billion Dollars In Lawsuits Against ‘Totally Unprepared’ Kathy Griffin
Did Elon Musk file a billion dollars in lawsuits against "totally unprepared" Kathy Griffin? No, that's not true: The site that posted the story and a "Fact Check" follow-up is satirical. There are clearly marked disclaimers on the websit
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Lionel Messi’s Face Will NOT Be Featured On Argentine Banknote After World Cup Victory
Will the likeness of Lionel Messi, captain of Argentina's national soccer team, be featured on an Argentine 1,000 pesos banknote after the team's win at the 2022 World Cup? No, that's not true: There is no evidence at the time of this wri
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Southwest Airlines Did NOT Cancel All Of Its Flights Until January 1, 2023
Did Southwest Airlines cancel all of its flights until January 1, 2023? No, that's not true: In the final week of 2022, Southwest Airlines experienced major delays and widespread flight cancellations, but it did not cancel all of its flig
The Dispatch→ Fact Checking a Viral Claim About Elon Musk
Elon Musk (Photo by CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images) A digitally altered social media post falsely attributes a quotation from George Orwell’s famous novella Animal Farm to Elon Musk. View this post on Instagram A post
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Nancy Pelosi Was NOT Hanged At GITMO
Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hanged at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba? No, that's not true: The claim was reported on a website well-known for making up stories about public figures. The site has a disclaimer warning readers
The Dispatch→ Fact Check: Did Charlie Hebdo Publish an Issue Mocking Volodymyr Zelensky?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Photo by Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images.) A fake, mock-up cover image of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is circulating online. The fabricated cover is of a supposed special holiday issue of the publi
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Announce He Would Run For President, As Of December 24, 2022
Did Elon Musk announce, as of December 24, 2022, that he is running for president? No, that's not true: As one of the most-reported-on persons of 2022, any such announcement would have been a top story for dozens of credible professional
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Story Behind ‘FuelSave Pro’ Chip Is NOT An Authentic Narrative
Did a young engineer named Christian discover a way to make cars more fuel efficient, but get fired from his job after telling his managers? Did he then develop a chip that will calibrate a car's fuel usage? No, that's not true: Much of t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: New Zealand Does NOT Allow Abortions ‘On Demand For Any Reason Up To Birth’
Does New Zealand allow abortions "on demand for any reason up to birth"? No, that's not true: According to a 2020 law, pregnancy terminations after the 20-week mark undergo a thorough review by at least two licensed health practitioners w
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal Was NOT Arrested For Child Porn
Was former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal arrested for possessing child pornography? No, that's not true: The article is from a satirical website and is completely made up. It was originally published without a satire label but has been update
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Put His Hand On Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s Buttocks — The Photo Is Edited
Did President Joe Biden put his hand on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's buttocks while pausing for a photo op during Zelenskyy's December 2022 visit to the United States? No, that's not true: The original image was posted to Twi
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Zelenskyy Did NOT Say ‘Butthole’ When Giving Biden A Medal
Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say the word "butthole" when giving President Joe Biden a medal at the White House? No, that's not true: Zelenskyy was saying "Pavlo," the name of the Ukrainian Army military captain who sent hi
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: There Is NO ‘Huge Army Of 2500000 Chechens’ Preparing ‘The End Of Russia’ Or Helping Putin In Ukraine
Is there a "huge army of 2500000 Chechens preparing the end of Russia" or helping "get Putin out of the bottleneck" in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The self-contradictory claim that fails to mention a source cites an unrealistic number e
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Electric Companies Do NOT Hate ‘Young Whizkid’ For Purported Power-Saving Invention
Is a "young whizkid" inventor shown in a social media video despised by electric companies for creating a device that "cuts 50% off an average home's power bill"? No, that's not true: The young man shown in the video is an inventor but no
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Hitler Was NOT Black NOR Does This Picture Prove He Was
Was Adolf Hitler, the head of the Nazi Party and dictator of Germany, actually black and does this photo prove it? No, that's not true: This picture is a color photo converted into black and white from an episode of a TV sitcom called "Co
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: FBI File Does NOT Suggest 1994 Threat Letter To Joe Biden Was Written By JFK Jr.
Do records in an FBI file indicate that John F Kennedy Jr. wrote a letter in 1994 to then-Sen. Joe Biden calling him a traitor and also saying, "You must die"? No, that's not true: The FBI did investigate a threat letter sent from Worcest
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Rep. Scott Perry Did NOT Issue Statement That ‘Italian Satellites,’ CIA, Italian Government Stole Votes From Trump
Did Rep. Scott Perry make an official statement saying that "Italian satellites," the CIA and the Italian government collaborated to manipulate votes in President Joe Biden's favor? No, that's not true: According to Perry's office and a r
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Biden’s Ex-COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients Did NOT Die At Guantanamo Bay’s Camp Delta On December 21, 2022
Did former White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients die at Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta in Cuba on December 21, 2022, after being arrested by the U.S. military? No, that's not true. This claim originated from an article published on a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Dramatic Lenticular Cloud Layers Do NOT Signal End Of World Or Even Storm
Does this short video of a dramatic layered cloud demonstrate "what the end of the world looks like" -- is it an impending scary natural disaster? No, that's not true: While we can't predict what the end of the world will look like, the c
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Did NOT Trigger Removal Of 44,000 Child Sexual Exploitation Pages ‘In Just India Alone’
Did Twitter remove "over 44,000 Twitter pages involved with child sexual exploitation -- in just India alone" since Elon Musk took over the company? No, that's not true: Such large numbers came from global totals, not from India alone. Al
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Buy Donald Trump’s Truth Social
Did Twitter CEO Elon Musk purchase former President Donald Trump's Truth Social in December 2022? No, that's not true: A video shared on Facebook claimed in the headline that Musk had bought the social media platform, but a voiceover narr
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Chick-fil-A Did NOT Just Donate ‘Another $1.8 Million To Anti-LGBTQ Groups’
Did Chick-fil-A just donate "another $1.8 million to anti-LGBTQ groups"? No, that's not true: The claim is a copy of a headline first published in 2019. The old story reported the fast food chain donated a combined $1.8 million to the Fel
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show ‘Human Clone Robot Factory’
Does a video shared on social media show an authentic "human clone robot factory"? No, that's not true: The video shared on Instagram and Facebook in December 2022 showed a prosthetics studio used in the making of props for television and
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Tesla Has NOT Launched New Cryptocurrency
Did Tesla launch a new cryptocurrency that will rapidly turn a £200 ($240) investment into thousands in just days? No, that's not true: This deceptive ad is not associated with Tesla. Although Tesla has invested in cryptocurrency, and Do
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Tweet That Tesla Was Forced To Recall Its Entire Fleet
Did Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweet that Tesla, his electric-vehicle and sustainable-energy company, was forced to recall its entire fleet? No, that's not true: The tweet was posted by a parody account impersonating Musk, the CEO of Tesla. Th
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Almond Milk Does NOT Contain Dangerous Levels Of Cyanide
Do almonds and almond milk contain dangerous amounts of the poisonous chemical compound cyanide? No, that's not true: Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering told Lead Stories
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Researcher Did Find Possible Racist Origin Of ‘Jingle Bells’ — But Song Isn’t About Slave Bells, Which Did Exist
Does the song "Jingle Bells" make a hidden reference to slaves forced to wear bells so they could be easily tracked if they tried to escape under the cover of night? No, that's not true: The song "Jingle Bells," originally named "One Hors
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Doctor Did NOT Say On Video That He Manufactured AIDS As Bio Weapon — This Is A Soviet-Era Disinformation Hoax
Did an American doctor admit on video that he created the HIV and AIDS viruses in a U.S. military medical laboratory, Fort Detrick, so that they could be used as biological weapons for depopulating the world? No, that's not true: Dr. Robe
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Earth Is NOT Proven Flat By ‘Massive Underwater Wall’ From Pole To Pole — There Is No Such ‘Wall,’ It’s A Mapping Seam
Does a video of satellite imagery showing what a post describes as a "massive underwater wall" stretching from "pole to pole" prove that the Earth is flat? No, that's not true: A video of Google Earth seafloor mapping data depicted in the
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: FBI Payments In ‘Twitter Files: Part 7’ Were NOT For Censoring — They Were For Providing Information
Were the FBI payments to Twitter, documented in what's known as Part 7 of the "Twitter Files", compensation for censoring? No, that's not true: The evidence provided shows the payments were reimbursement for costs associated with the comp
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: 80,000 Ukrainian Troops Have NOT Imposed A ‘Total Blockade’ On Russian Forces In The Donetsk Region
Have 80,000 Ukrainian troops totally blockaded Russian invasion forces fighting in Ukraine's semi-occupied eastern Donetsk region? No, that's not true: The post making the claim in its caption does not mention a blockade in an accompanyin
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Leonel Messi Did NOT Direct Profanity Or Criticism At Ukraine’s Zelenskyy In Instagram Post
Did Leonel Messi, an Argentinian football star who led his national team to the 2022 World Cup, swear at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Instagram, demanding that the Ukrainian leader "take [his] people and get out of Europe" a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Image Does NOT Show Boy Who Was Found ‘Roaming Around’ — It Was Misappropriated To Promote Scam
Does this image show an unidentified boy in the care of police officers after being found "roaming around"? No, that's not true: The boy in the picture actually helped locate someone else -- an older man with Alzheimer's disease. The post
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence Thieves Stole U.S. Postal Service Uniforms And Are Using Them To Rob Homeowners At Gunpoint
Did thieves steal U.S. Postal Service uniforms and use them to rob homeowners at gunpoint? No, there's no evidence that's true: A local Postal Service spokesman told Lead Stories the claim "could not be substantiated." Additionally, there
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: FDA Did NOT Report Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine ‘Causes Blood Clots’
Did the Food and Drug Administration report that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine "causes" blood clots? No, that's not true: In remarks to Lead Stories, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the vaccine meets its safety s
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Katie Porter Saying Pedophilia Is An ‘Identity’ Not A Crime — Clip Is Taken Out Of Context
Does a video of a congressional hearing show a Democratic congresswoman from California saying she believes pedophilia is an identity and not a crime? No, that's not true: Katie Porter's remarks were about the use of false narratives on s
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Michelle Obama’s Doctor Did NOT Go On Record About Seeing Proof That She Is Male — This Story Is Satire From A Liberal Troll
Did Michelle Obama's doctor go on the record about the former first lady using a urinal during the 2008 presidential campaign, thereby proving that she is a man? No, that's not true: The article making this claim originated in 2017 on a n