Did the Canadian government ban its employees from using the phrase "Let's Go Brandon"? No, that's not true: The document seen online is not from the Canadian government agency mentioned in the document; it is a fake email that someone cr
Snopes→ Saudi Arabia Is Launching a Theme Park on an Oil Rig
The offshore site will have hotels, extreme sports, live shows, and restaurants.
Snopes→ NZ Police Answer 4-Year-Old’s Call, Confirm Toys Are Cool
An emergency call made by a 4-year-old New Zealand boy asking for police to come over and check out his toys prompted a real-life callout.
Snopes→ No Evidence Southwest Airlines Reversed Course on Worker Vax Mandate
Facebook users incorrectly believed that the company had previously said it would terminate employees for refusing the vaccine.
Full Fact→ Canada is not implementing a social credit scheme
A Facebook post shared almost 700 times suggests that “in a few weeks” Ontario in Canada will implement a social credit scheme based around QR codes. The post claims that “a QR code social credit scheme” will give the gove
Full Fact→ Two doctors with same name cause Times letter confusion
A Facebook post claims that a letter published in The Times on 16 October 2021 claims to be from a doctor that died five years ago. The post also gathered a lot of attention on Twitter. The letter writer, Martin Spiro, who spoke about his time as
Full Fact→ About 3.6% of men have recently experienced domestic abuse
For the year ending March 2020, the crime survey of England and Wales estimated that 757,000 men experienced domestic abuse—that is approximately seven men in every 100. Rachel Maclean MP, 18 October 2021. During a debate in the House of Commons
Snopes→ Were Backpacks Banned After a School Shooting?
Students in Idaho used snow sleds, grocery carts, and laundry baskets to carry their books following the backpack ban.
Full Fact→ England hasn’t ‘kept’ £450 billion of Scottish taxes since 2001
A post on Facebook claims that since 2001, Scotland has sent £900 billion in tax to “Westminster” but only received £447.5 billion in return, meaning that Scotland subsidises England. It doesn’t. What this post fails to in
Snopes→ Nikolas Cruz Pleads Guilty to 2018 Parkland School Massacre
Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder in the 2018 high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.
Full Fact→ Vaccine rap battle full of misinformation
A video on Facebook, performed in the style of a rap battle and viewed more than 36,000 times, makes a number of misleading claims about Covid-19 and the vaccines. In it, the self-proclaimed “truther” tells their “vaxxer”
Snopes→ White House Details Plans to Vaccinate 28M Children Age 5-11
Children age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician's office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school.
Snopes→ US Regulators Lay out Plan for Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids
Health regulators unveiled their proposal to allow Americans to buy hearing aids without a prescription
Logically→ A WHO database has listed over two million adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines.
Unverified data uploaded on the VigiAccess portal of WHO is misrepresented to show that COVID-19 vaccines cause severe adverse effects.
Logically→ Pfizer has admitted that the FDA has not approved its COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.
The COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received full FDA approval on August 23, 2021.
Snopes→ Queen Accepts Medical Advice to Rest, Cancels N Ireland Trip
The palace didn't offer specifics on the decision, but says the 95-year-old monarch is “in good spirits."
AllSides→ Fact Checking Claims that the Pfizer Vaccine Is Not Yet Approved
https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/fact-checking-claims-that-the-pfizer A widely shared article from
Poynter→ What you need to know about the Supreme Court’s ‘shadow docket’
Some of the most important moves by the Supreme Court in the past few years haven’t followed the traditional process of briefs, oral arguments, and private discussions among the justices to produce lengthy, heavily footnoted opinions. Some procedural
Washington Post→ No, Biden isn’t proposing that the IRS spy on bank records
The Democrats’ proposal was never that intrusive and now is much more limited.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: This Video Does Not Prove Its Claim That ‘Molnupiravir’ COVID Pill Causes Human Mutations and Cancer
Did this video prove its claim that the proposed oral COVID drug called molnupiravir is poisonous and causes cancer and mutations? No, that's not true: There's no credible and peer-reviewed lab or clinical data supplied, and the publicly-
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Vaccine Makers Are NOT Funding Facebook Fact Checkers
Are Facebook's independent fact-checking partners funded by vaccine makers? No, that's not true. While one of the 10 U.S. Facebook fact checkers discloses that one of its 2021 grants comes from a foundation whose stock-holdings include va
Truth or Fiction?→ Was William Shatner the First ‘Star Trek’ Actor to Reach Outer Space?
While William Shatner did explore the “final frontier” when he briefly reached outer space in October 2021, it is inaccurate to say that he journeyed to where no Star Trek actor had gone before. As fans quickly noted online, Dr. Mae Jemison
Snopes→ Jan. 6 Panel Votes Unanimously to Hold Steve Bannon in Contempt
A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony.
Snopes→ Indictment Accuses Nebraska Congressman of Lying to FBI
A federal grand jury on indicted U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire.
Snopes→ Did AP Use the Spelling ‘Missippi’ in a Headline About Literacy?
To learn more, we traveled back to the year 2005.
Snopes→ Navy Probe Finds Major Failures in Fire That Destroyed Ship
A Navy report has concluded there were sweeping failures by commanders, crew members and others that fueled the July 2020 arson fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard, calling the massive five-day blaze in San Diego preventable and unacceptable.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Image Of Pete Buttigieg Breastfeeding Is NOT Real — It’s Photoshopped
Did U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pose for a photo wearing a breastfeeding device? No, that's not true: This image seen in the top portion of this meme has been digitally altered using photo-editing tools. The actual per
Snopes→ Does a Pic Show Pete Buttigieg Wearing a Breastfeeding Device?
Buttigieg has been feeding his twin babies with a bottle during paternity leave.
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘It’s Been Illegal for Employers to Forbid Workers From Discussing Their Pay For the Last 86 Years, Since the National Labor Relations Act of 1935’
An October 16 2021, a Facebook post by performance artist and perennial political candidate Vermin Supreme highlighted an October 11 tweet claiming that it became illegal for employers to forbid workers from discussing their pay rate 86 years earlier:
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence Trump Commands 50,000 Secret Troops And Deputized Them As U.S. Marshals
Were "50,000 secret USA troops" just deputized by Donald Trump? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that any service members have been deputized by former President Donald Trump and made "Federal Marshals." A parody Twitter account
Health Feedback→ Vaccines are highly effective against COVID-19, but unvaccinated people can still endanger vaccinated people, contrary to Tucker Carlson’s claim on Fox News
REVIEW More than half the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of 12 October 2021. However, the pace of vaccination significantly slowed down compared to the first months of the campaign. In a press conference on 24 Septembe
The Dispatch→ Did Donald Trump Issue a Statement Calling the Late Colin Powell a ‘RINO’?
With a (shall we say) unique approach to grammar and style, former President Donald Trump’s personal messages have been an easy target for parodists. One doesn’t have to look far for fake Trump emails or tweets from before he was banned fro
Truth or Fiction?→ JesusWeen
On October 19 2021, the Facebook page “Vagina Devil Magic” shared a screenshot of a headline, “Conservative Christians Want To Replace Halloween With ‘JesusWeen’—And Twitter Can’t Stop Chuckling”: That scre
Snopes→ Did Trump Release Statement Bashing Colin Powell After His Death?
Powell died of COVID-19 complications while battling cancer on Oct. 18, 2021.
The Dispatch→ Was Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Maskless at a WNBA Game?
Viral social media posts purport to show Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot maskless in an arena. Steve Cortes @CortesSteve.@chicagosmayor proudly flouts her own mask mandate, amid a sea of lemmings dutifully obeying. The ruling class wan
Snopes→ Climate Report: Africa’s Rare Glaciers Soon to Disappear
The continent that contributes least to global warming will suffer from it most.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Colin Powell Did NOT Commit Suicide
Did Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commit suicide? No, that's not true: That claim is not supported by any news coverage of his death, by any statements from his family or offic
Truth or Fiction?→ 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics: Minimum Wage and Immigrant Labor
On October 18 2021, a screenshot of a tweet about the 2021 Nobel prize in economics was shared at least twice to Facebook, on the pages Coffee Party USA and Labor 411. The depicted tweet was first published on October 11 2021: The 2021 Nobel Prize in
The Dispatch→ Did a Delta Pilot Collapse and Die Midflight?
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Snopes→ 7-Foot Statue of Harambe Placed in Front of Wall Street’s Charging Bull
The gorilla installation supposedly depicts how Wall Street has gone "bananas."