Events and groups denying the defeat of outgoing United States President Donald Trump continue to fester on Facebook in November 2020 — despite the platform taking action following a report by activist group Avaaz. We discovered at least one gro
Search Results (1025) for: authentic
Snopes→ RUMOR ALERT: A California Woman’s Dog Voted in the 2020 Presidential Election?
Posting a video to social media does not make its content authentic.
The Dispatch→ Fact Check: Explaining the False Allegations About Dominion Voting Systems
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Truth or Fiction?→ Does Benford’s Law Prove Election Fraud in Biden Votes?
After the 2020 election was called for former Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden, “Benford’s Law” — a mathematical principle applied occasionally to the count of votes in any given election — became a hot topic on soci
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Washington Times Did NOT Run A ‘PRESIDENT GORE’ Headline Following The 2000 Election
Did The Washington Times publish a "PRESIDENT GORE" front page headline on November 8, 2000, following the highly-contested and drawn-out 2000 election in which Democratic candidate Al Gore ended up losing to George W. Bush? No, that's no
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Department Of Homeland Security Did NOT Craft An Election Fraud Sting With Watermarked Ballots — This Is A Hoax
Did The Department Of Homeland Security craft an election fraud sting by printing watermarked ballots? No, that's not true: The design, printing and auditing of ballots are processes managed by state and local election officials. One of m
Snopes→ Pioneering Black Doll Baby Nancy Enters Toy Hall of Fame
Baby Nancy, the first Black baby doll to have an Afro and other authentic features, has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Obama Did NOT Get More Votes In 2008 Than Biden Has In 2020
Did former President Barack Obama receive more votes in 2008 than Joe Biden has gotten this election cycle? No, that's not true: Ballots are still being counted in this election cycle, but Biden has already surpassed Obama's 2008 vote tot
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Biden Did NOT Suddenly Go Up 138K Votes In Michigan, With No Change To Trump
Did Joe Biden's vote tally suddenly rise by 138,000 in Michigan, with no change to the vote count for president Donald Trump? No, that's not true: What looked like a suspicious, one-sided jump was actually just an input error. The data wa
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: What ‘DKIM’ Verification Of Hunter Biden Email Proves — And What It Doesn’t
Does the DomainKeys Identified Mail signature within metadata of the New York Post's "smoking gun" Hunter Biden email prove the correspondence is "unquestionably authentic"? That's a stretch: DKIM can validate who sent an email and what t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Secret Super-Computer Is NOT Stealing Votes Through Voter Interface Contractor
Is a super-secret super-computer stealing votes for Joe Biden in eight states via a state contractor called VR Systems? No, that's not true: The claimed point of theft -- VR Systems -- says it isn't involved in vote-recording or vote-coun
The Dispatch→ Did a Poll Worker in Pennsylvania Throw Away Trump Ballots?
A viral tweet, now deleted, and other social media posts claim to show the Instagram story of a poll worker named Sebastian Machado in Erie, Pennsylvania, who admitted to throwing away ballots cast for President Trump. The claim received wide coverage
FactCheck.org→ Pennsylvania Voters Told to Quarantine Can Still Cast a Ballot
Quick Take Pennsylvania voters told to quarantine due to potential COVID-19 exposure are entitled to vote and can request and return an emergency absentee ballot through 8 p.m. on Election Day. A viral Facebook post misleadingly suggests they are being
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Screenshot And Blogger’s Proprietary Technology Do NOT Provide Proof That Hunter Biden Has PornHub Account With Family Photos
Has a browser bookmark label and the "XRVision Sentinel AI Platform" proved that bloggers found a PornHub account belonging to Hunter Biden that contains images of a family member without her knowledge and permission? No, that's not true.
FactCheck.org→ Nothing Untoward About Counting Ballots After Election Day
In recent days, President Donald Trump has repeatedly and baselessly suggested that counting mail-in ballots after Election Day will result in fraud. The president, who has relentlessly attacked mail-in ballots as being rife with fraud, warned about po
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Snopes Did NOT Fact Check The Claim That There Are Leaked Pornographic Videos Of Hunter Biden
Did the fact-checking website Snopes rate as "Mostly False" the claim that pornographic videos of Hunter Biden have been leaked online? No, that's not true: Snopes never wrote that article. The screenshot that makes the claim that Snopes
Snopes→ Are the ‘World’s Spookiest Mushrooms’ Real?
We're not sure how to objectively rate a mushroom's spookiness level, but we can verify the authenticity of these images.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Malia Obama Credit Card Photo Is NOT New — There Is NO Proof It Was Found On Hunter Biden’s ‘Laptop’
Was a "new" photograph of Malia Obama's credit card with a white powdery substance in lines found on Hunter Biden's laptop? No, that's not true. A picture circulating showing a "Malia Obama" Visa card near lines of white powder has been o
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Term ‘Hungover’ Did NOT Originate From Drunken Sailors Sleeping Over A Rope
Did the term "hungover" originate from a practice of allowing drunks to drape their bodies across a rope overnight for the price of a penny in Victorian England? No, that's not entirely true: The term hungover -- and its noun form, hangov
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Hunter Biden Did NOT Admit To Doing Naked FaceTimes Nor Keeping Sexually Explicit Photos Of 14-Year-Old
Did Hunter Biden admit to doing naked video calls on FaceTime and keeping sexually explicit photos of a 14-year-old? No, that's not true. There is no record Hunter Biden has confirmed having done either of those things. The person making
Truth or Fiction?→ Is This a Photo of Trump and His Children With ‘His Pedophile Buddy Jeffrey Epstein’?
On October 20 2020, the Facebook page for “Occupy Democrats” shared the following photograph of a much younger Donald Trump with now-infamous pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein — alongside a claim it showed Trump bringing his chil
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Rudy Giuliani Was NOT Prank Texted By Someone Pretending To Be Ivanka Trump
Did a Twitter user text Rudy Giuliani pretending to be Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter, with a new number? No, that's not true: The messages were fabricated as a joke. The Twitter user was not actually texting Giuliani, Pres
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: ABC, CBS, NBC Have NOT Given ‘Zero Coverage’ To Hunter Biden Story — All Three Have Reported The Story
Did ABC, CBS and NBC ignore New York Post stories that Democrat Joe Biden helped his son get rich from a Ukrainian company, with "proof" on a laptop the younger Biden abandoned at a repair shop? No, this is not true. All three networks ha
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘Dear Neighbor, You Have Been Identified As a Trump Supporter’ Flyers
On October 19 2020, Republican strategist and known disinformation purveyor Matt Schlapp shared the following tweet, claiming that vaguely threatening letters beginning with “Dear neighbor, you have been identified as a Trump supporter” ha
Truth or Fiction?→ Threatening Messages Sent to Democratic Party Voters in Battleground States
In a preview of more organized disinformation campaigns to come in the 2020 U.S. elections and subsequent interregnum period, Democratic Party voters in swing states received threatening emails the week of October 19 2020, ordering them to switch thei
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The White House Is NOT Confirmed To Be Set To Release Footage Of Hunter Biden Raping And Torturing Little Girls
Is it confirmed that The White House has video footage -- and is set to release it -- of Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter raping and torturing minor girls? No, that's not true: conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' claim i
Truth or Fiction?→ Joe Biden’s 2002 Letter to Ruth Cooke
On October 15 2020, a Facebook user shared a purported letter dated February 19 2002 that was attributed to Joe Biden and addressed to a widow named Ruth Cooke: On October 16 2020, the letter was referenced in a post to Reddit’s r/politics:
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Extraterrestrials Were NOT Found And Examined During An ‘Apollo 20’ Mission
Do these videos prove that astronauts found an "alien city" on the moon during the Apollo 20 mission and then attempted to conceal their discovery? No, that's not true: The Apollo 20 mission never happened, astronauts did not find evidenc
Truth or Fiction?→ Original Script for ‘The Addams Family’ Writer’s Note, ‘Demonic Levels of Horniness’
On October 16 2020 a Facebook user shared the following Twitter screenshot which purportedly depicted a “writer’s note” on the original script for the 1991 film The Addams Family: The following dialogue appeared in an image attache
FactCheck.org→ Social Media Posts Dredge Up Baseless ‘Child Trafficking’ Conspiracy Theory
Quick Take Social media posts are once again making false and baseless claims about high-profile Democrats being involved in child trafficking and sex crimes. Full Story It’s hard not to overstate this simple fact: There is not and has never been
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Snopes Did NOT Fact Check A Claim That Photo Showed Hunter Biden Asleep With A Crack Pipe By Concluding It Was A Meth Pipe
Did the fact-checking website Snopes publish a fact-check declaring a photo of Hunter Biden asleep with a meth pipe is real? No, that's not true: Snopes never published a fact check about the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Bid
Truth or Fiction?→ Is This a Trump Supporter’s Truck Getting Repossessed in Florida in ‘a Perfect Metaphor’?
Around October 12 2020, a photograph described as a “Trump supporter’s truck being repossessed in Florida,” flags still flying, spread on several social media platforms, including Twitter: A Trumpanzee in Florida having his truck
Health Feedback→ No evidence that coronavirus genetic sequences were fabricated, contrary to preprint by Li-Meng Yan and colleagues
REVIEW Uncertainty surrounding the origin of the novel coronavirus has provided fertile ground for breeding conspiracy theories, some of which Health Feedback previously found to be inaccurate and unsubstantiated (see here and here). The recent clai
FactCheck.org→ Trump Revives False Narrative on Biden and Ukraine
At a campaign rally in Iowa, President Donald Trump cited an unsubstantiated news report to revive a widely debunked false narrative about Joe Biden’s work in Ukraine on behalf of the Obama administration. As we have reported more than once las
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Donald Trump Did NOT Blame "Forgetting" To Wear A Mask (At A KKK Rally) For Contracting Covid-19
Did President Trump say he caught COVID-19 by forgetting to wear a mask at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Florida? No, that's not true: The claim was made in a satire article that used a satire photo from 2016. It is a real photo, but features a
FactCheck.org→ Partisan Claims of ‘Russia Hoax’ Revived Ahead of 2020 Election
Quick Take President Donald Trump and his supporters on social media are citing unverified “Russian intelligence” from 2016 as evidence that Hillary Clinton “was behind the entire Russian collusion hoax.” But that so-called inte
Truth or Fiction?→ Suspects in Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Used Facebook as a Recruitment Tool
Social media accounts of several people arrested and charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Party governor Gretchen Whitmer were devoted to supporting or promoting right-wing disinformation, according to investigators and conten
FactCheck.org→ FactChecking the Vice Presidential Debate
Summary In the first and only vice presidential debate, Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence parroted many of the false and misleading claims we have heard from the top of the tickets. Harris misleadingly said President Donald Trump’s ta
Truth or Fiction?→ Was Netflix Indicted by a Texas Grand Jury over ‘Cuties’ Controversy?
On October 7 2020, posts claiming that a Texas grand jury had “indicted Netflix” over its distribution of the film Cuties began circulating on social media: Netflix’s Indictment in the News Readers searching to validate the stor
Truth or Fiction?→ Did a Real Ben Shapiro Tweet About Trayvon Martin Resurface After He Predicted a Lack of Sympathy for Donald Trump’s COVID-19?
News that United States President Donald Trump had fallen ill with COVID-19 broke shortly after 1:00 AM Eastern time October 2 2020. Right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro wasted no time, immediately chiding Twitter’s “blue checkmarks” (