Rumors of a “false flag” terror attack in Seattle on November 3 2019 spiked in popularity in specific shadowy corners of social media in late October 2019, although by that point, the highly specious claims were several weeks old. A Septem
Search Results (2377) for: alleged
Truth or Fiction?→ Did a Forensic Pathologist Say That Jeffrey Epstein’s Death Looks More Like Homicide Than Suicide?
On October 30 2019, media and its social counterpart were awash in a bombshell claim that a pathologist said that Jeffrey Epstein’s death looked more like a homicide than a suicide: Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy shows signs of homicide, not su
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘The Purest Form of Human Trafficking’
A disturbing October 2019 story out of Arizona’s Maricopa County prompted readers to ask us whether it was legitimate: An Arizona elected official ran a human smuggling scheme that promised pregnant women thousands of dollars to lure them fro
Truth or Fiction?→ The Kidnapping Story Being Used to Sell a Flashlight
The TC1200 flashlight might be a quality item — but the advertising around it leaves several questions unanswered. A Facebook video promoting the product in October 2019 bases its ad on the story of a law enforcement officer named John McKnight. How
FactCheck.org→ Dubious Posts Tie Political Families to Ukraine Work
Quick Take There’s no evidence for social media claims that the children of Nancy Pelosi, Mitt Romney and John Kerry are working for “Ukrainian gas companies” or sitting “on the board of directors for energy companies doing busi
Truth or Fiction?→ The Sad Backstory of the ‘Woman Yelling at a Cat’ Meme
On October 26 2019, a Facebook user shared a PSA involving the popular meme often called “woman yelling at a cat,” stating that the image’s ubiquity led them to research the origins of the image: After seeing this image on many diffe
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Barack Obama Did NOT Free Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi From GitMo And Return Him To The Middle East
Did President Barack Obama free ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi from GitMo, return him to the middle east, and allow the ISIS leader into Syria? No, that's not true: Al-Baghdadi was freed from an Iraqi prison after several months in U.S. mili
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Nancy Pelosi Was NOT Involved In One Of The Biggest Heroin Busts
Was Nancy Pelosi involved in one of the biggest heroin busts? No, that's not true: The claim that Speaker Pelosi was involved in a massive operation to smuggle heroin into the United States from southeast Asia has no basis in fact. A published
Lead Stories→ Fake News: President Trump Told The Press About Jeffrey Epstein: ‘Check The Plane Manifests To His Island.’ They Actually Did
Did the news media ignore Jeffrey Epstein's flight manifests, including those concerning Bill Clinton, even after President Donald Trump told them to look? No, that's not true: Reporters wrote stories about former President Bill Clinton's trav
FactCheck.org→ Instagram Post Falsely Links Flu Vaccine to Polio
Quick Take A popular Instagram post falsely claims “over 1,100 people died from reactions to the [flu] shot” in 2018, and suggests that the immunization gave some children polio. The flu vaccine cannot give anyone polio and there is no evidence to
Snopes→ Was Nancy Pelosi’s Son an Exec at a Gas Company That Did Business in Ukraine?
The claim rests on the existence of an invention allegedly capable of providing cheap energy to billions of people around the world without using fossil fuels.
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Canada Legalize Bestiality?
In October 2019, a Facebook user shared the following post (archived here), with a headline claiming that Canada had legalized “sex with animals”: That Facebook user wrote: Sick fucks. Only,one Judge a woman was against it They are maki
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Charlie Chaplin Say ‘Love Is Enough to Get Everything Done’?
The perils of blindly sharing “feel-good” remarks, even when they’re combined with photographs of a beloved celebrity, is evident once again in one of the latest iterations of a graphic falsely quoting actor Sir Charles Spencer Chapl
Snopes→ Did Ivanka Trump Say Hunter Biden Benefited from Nepotism?
Two prominent U.S. political families sniped at each other over alleged abuses of influence.
Snopes→ Trump Says Accidents ‘Happen’ in Crash by Diplomat’s Wife
U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to get involved in the case of an American diplomat's wife who quickly left the U.K. after she was allegedly involved in a fatal wrong-way crash — but stopped short of suggesting he would revoke her diploma
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Nancy Pelosi’s Brother-In-Law NOT Given $737 Million Of Taxpayers’ Money To Build Giant Solar Power Plant In Middle Of The Desert
Was Nancy Pelosi's brother-in-law given $737 million of taxpayers' money to build a giant solar power plant in middle of the desert? No, that's not true: Ronald Pelosi served as a board member for an investment group that invested in a solar e
FactCheck.org→ Video: False Whistleblower Rule Claim
In this fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper scrutinizes a false claim — made by President Donald Trump and Rep. Jim Jordan — that rules were recently changed to allow an intelligence community whistleblower to file a complaint alle
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Rolex Sales Records Help Solve a Murder?
In September 2019, a Reddit r/todayilearned post claimed that luxury watch manufacturer Rolex maintained such “meticulous” sales records that their data was used to solve an open homicide: TIL of The Rolex Murder. On July 28, 19
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Global Warming Data NOT FAKED By Government To Fit Climate Change Fictions
Was global warming data faked by the U.S. government to fit climate change fictions? No, that's not true: When scientists with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) modernized the way daily temperatures recorded in every nook
FactCheck.org→ No Hearsay Rule Change for Whistleblowers
President Donald Trump and some of his defenders have advanced a bogus theory that whistleblower rules were changed to allow a complaint alleging misconduct by the president to be forwarded to Congress based only on secondhand information. There was no
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Man Did NOT Serve Wife Birthday Cake With Penis of Her Lover as Candle
Did a man named Dennis Brown get charged with murder after serving his wife a birthday cake with the penis of her dead lover as the candle? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a site with a satire disclaimer that seems to specialize
Lead Stories→ Fake News: ‘Dreamer’ Did NOT Stomp 83-Year-Old Man To Death In Texas
Did an illegal immigrant who had the "Dreamer" status stomp an 83-year-old man to death in Texas? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Silvano Echavarria, a 23-year-old Texas resident, was not either a U.S. citizen or a legal immigra
Lead Stories→ Fake News: NO New Drug In Schools Named "Strawberry Quick", NOT Causing Mouth Sores
Is a new drug named "strawberry quick" being handed out by drug dealers to school kids and does it cause horrific mouth sores or warts? No, that's not true: an old drug scare from 2007 caused by police seizeing some methamphetamines that had b
Snopes→ Model Wins $15M Rape Lawsuit Against Grammy-Winning Producer
A model and aspiring singer who alleged in a lawsuit that she was raped and sexually and emotionally abused by Grammy-winning music producer Detail has been awarded $15 million.
FactCheck.org→ Q&A on Intelligence Community Whistleblower
A whistleblower on Aug. 12 filed a complaint with the inspector general of the intelligence community, who found the information credible and determined that under the law it should be forwarded to the congressional intelligence committees. But the act
PolitiFact→ How would an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump work?
Democrats are weighing impeachment after news reports suggested that President Donald Trump withheld U.S. military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating his political rival Joe Biden. Biden’s son Hunter was a director at a U
FactCheck.org→ Trump Twists Facts on Biden and Ukraine
President Donald Trump once again twisted the facts to claim that Joe Biden, as vice president, threatened to withhold “billions of dollars to Ukraine” unless it removed the prosecutor general who “was prosecuting” Biden’s
Truth or Fiction?→ Did a Man Find a Dead Mouse in a Nearly Empty Red Bull Can?
On September 5 2019, Facebook user Seth Bowman shared the following post (archived here), alongside a claim his Red Bull energy drink was contaminated by a dead mouse. According to Bowman’s claim, he had nearly finished drinking the can of Red B
Truth or Fiction?→ Did a Teenager Sexually Stimulate Himself 56 Times Straight Before Dying of a Heart Attack?
In September 2019, a number of people tweeted an apparent news article headlined: “Teen Masturbated 56 Times Straight Before Dying of Heart Attack”: So the limit is 55.https://t.co/6dhCnh6tSj — Nathorix (@Nathorix) September 23, 20
Truth or Fiction?→ Tekashi 69 ‘Snitched’ and Martha Stewart Didn’t?
On September 22 2019, Facebook’s “Man Page” shared the following meme, declaring that hip-hop artist Tekashi 69 — also called 6ix9ine — is “a snitch” and lifestyle personality Martha Stewart is not: On the left s
PolitiFact→ By the numbers: How common are data breaches — and what can you do about them?
When Capital One announced in July that it had been hacked, millions of Americans joined the ranks of people who have had their personal information exposed. The data breach, which was allegedly coordinated by a Seattle software-engineer-turned-hacker,
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Nikola Tesla Describe Mobile Phones in 1926?
On September 19 2019, an Imgur user shared the following quote meme, attributing commentary that seemed to predict cell phones to futurist and engineer Nikola Tesla (misspelled once as “Nikolai Tesla” in the post): Did Nikolai Tesla inven
Snopes→ Does a Picture Show a Shanty Town in Los Angeles?
U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized California for its homeless population, but an alleged image of L.A. got some things wrong.
Snopes→ Saudi Arabia Says Iran Missiles, Drones Attacked Oil Sites
Saudi Arabia alleged an attack by drones and cruise missiles on the heart of the kingdom’s oil industry was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran."
Truth or Fiction?→ Nevada Man Charged with Plotting Homophobic and Anti-Semitic Shooting Attacks
A 23-year-old Las Vegas man with a history of associating with white supremacists was indicted on September 17 2019 on a federal weapons charge for allegedly planning mass shooting attacks against both a local synagogue and an LGBTQ bar. According to
Snopes→ Times Apologizes for Tweet, Revises Kavanaugh Article
President Donald Trump said Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is under assault, following a New York Times story about a sexual misconduct allegation that was revised to reflect that the alleged victim couldn't recall the incident.
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘2045 Time Traveler Took This Video in the Future…’
On August 30 2019 the Facebook page “Mysterious Society” shared the following video, “Time Traveler Took This Video in the Year 2045”: In a rambling six-minute clip, a seemingly distressed man repeatedly impresses upon viewe
FactCheck.org→ Yang’s Top-Gun Tale
Making a point about Defense Department waste, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang related a secondhand story about a Navy fighter pilot who said that airmen routinely dumped fuel into the Pacific Ocean at the end of the fiscal year as a way
Truth or Fiction?→ Was Emmett Till’s Sign Vandalized Again, 35 Days After it Was Replaced?
In September 2019, a BlackNewsAlerts.com article headlined, “Emmett Till’s Memorial Sign Shot Up Again 35 Days After Being Replaced” circulated on Facebook: After 35 days of being replaced for vandalism, the memorial sign of Emmett Till
Truth or Fiction?→ Is a ‘Nail Stripe’ a Sign of Melanoma?
A Washington state’s barber college story about a warning for a client is true — but readers should be aware that it is a republishing of an account first published in 2017. The college’s Facebook post, which has been shared more than 1