Just Because It's Trending Doesn't Mean It's True — Fact checking at the speed of likes since 2015

Are social media posts posting authentic information that police officers in various states have "no idea" where an "approximately 2 years old" boy who was found and taken to a police station lives? No, that's not true: Lead Stories has debunked this particular story about an "approximately two years old" boy before. These bait-and-switch posts use an emotional tale about…

Did Mission Hospital in North Carolina contain 900 unidentified bodies of Hurricane Helene victims and was the hospital turned into a morgue amid the disaster? No, that's not true: "Mission Hospital is not serving as the local community morgue," a hospital spokesperson told Lead Stories. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services told Lead Stories they had "no…

Did Univision "accidentally broadcast proof" that Kamala Harris was reading scripted responses from a teleprompter during her live town hall on the network? No, that's not true: Univision's footage repeatedly shows Harris responding to questions from the audience when there was no teleprompter nearby. Both the town hall moderator, Enrique Acevedo, and Univision News President Daniel Coronell have posted statements…

Do viral images authentically capture the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Milton at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida? No, that's not true: Those pictures were generated by AI and first posted on a website with a satire label. On October 11, 2024, Disney announced it had reopened its theme parks. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did Oregon officials omit Donald Trump from a voters' pamphlet about candidates in the 2024 election for political reasons? No, that's not true: Trump's campaign chose not to submit information for the pamphlet, according to a statement from the Oregon GOP. A spokeswoman for Oregon's Secretary of State told Lead Stories that their office contacted the Trump campaign multiple times…

Does a National Hurricane Center tracking map show a new storm heading for Florida immediately after Hurricane Milton hit in early October 2024? No, that's not true: The Center's "Atlantic Tropical Cyclones and Disturbances" map shows no storm setting its sights on the Sunshine State. Instead, the image on social media is an old map from November 2022. The claim…

Does a video show two active tornadoes on the ground simultaneously in Florida during Hurricane Milton's landfall in October 2024? No, that's not true: The video on X shows two active tornadoes on the ground simultaneously in Nebraska in 2014. The person who made the video confirmed that the tornado sightings were recorded in Pilger, Nebraska, in 2014 in a…

Did Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson say that noncitizens would be allowed to vote in the 2024 elections? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that Nelson opened voting to non-U.S. citizens. In an October 2024 election advisory, the Secretary of State's Office clarified that naturalized citizens already on the voting rolls could use a limited-term driver's license or…

Does a viral video show "two large tornado producing supercells" in southern Florida on October 9, 2024, just before Hurricane Milton's landfall? No, that's not true: The video is a compilation of digitally created visuals and footage that date back years and months before Milton. No clips in the video were recorded in October 2024. The claim appeared in a…

Does a video clip show a speaker saying, "We should focus our efforts on LGBTQIA people" during a disaster preparedness meeting by the Federal Emergency Management Agency? No, that's not true: This was a 2023 panel event, not a "disaster preparedness meeting." According to transcripts the statement about LGBTQIA focus didn't come up in the clip or in the longer…

Does a video shared on Facebook genuinely show underwater HAARP devices surrounding Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall? No, that's not true: The video shows a coral restoration project in the Florida Keys, two marine scientists told Lead Stories. The antenna-like objects seen in the video are part of that coral reef rehabilitation project. A version of the claim…

Was voter turnout above 100 percent in 2020 in some precincts of Henrico County, Virginia? No, that's not true: Data in a social media post inaccurately added county-level absentee ballots to precinct counts using a mathematical estimate. The county director of elections told Lead Stories that the assertion about impossible turnouts is "incorrect." Counties are not concealing precinct data by…

Does a video show "twin tornadoes" hitting Miami at the same time Hurricane Milton did? No, that's not true: This video footage was taken in August 2024, not October 2024 when Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. Also, the columns seen in the video are waterspouts, not tornadoes, according to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. Finally, this video was…

Does a video circulating on social media in October 2024 show a Florida bridge jammed with cars during Hurricane Milton? No, that's not true: The clip shows vehicles backed up on a bridge in Mumbai, India -- not Florida. It appeared on social media during Mumbai's floods in September 2024. The claim appeared in video on TikTok (archived here) on…

Does a video show fenced-in elk escaping a wildfire in Wyoming in 2024? No, that's not true: The video on X shows three elk fleeing a wildfire in Montana in 2021. The person who made the video located it in Big Horn County, Montana, in a 2021 Facebook post. The video appeared in a post (archived here) on X on…

Does a video show a Haitian man in Springfield, Ohio, cutting up an animal or a pet with a machete in public? No, that's not true: Police said the person who shot the video told them the man was cutting up "a big ass ham." The Springfield Police Division said there is no evidence to support the claim that "a…

Do public documents about an alleged plot to carry out a terror attack on behalf of ISIS on U.S. Election Day reveal that a mobile device "visited" the home of one of the suspects and "also visited Senator Lankford's office on 3 occasions"? No, that's not true: No publicly available official documents said that. Though the post includes a press…

Does a compilation of storm video clips on social media show Hurricane Milton? No, that's not true: A collection of video clips using the hashtag #HurricanMilton shows storm footage from around the world that dates back months and even years. The clickbait compilation was posted on social media on October 8, 2024, when Hurricane Milton was over 400 miles from…

Did "NC State police" issue a statement saying that they will start arresting any federal employees trying to "stop or hinder rescue operations"? No, that's not true: A public information officer for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol denounced the claim, calling it "made-up" and "completely unfactual." Lead Stories did not find any evidence of such a statement on the…

Is the conspiracy theory that hurricanes are planned or controlled supported by Amazon's Alexa supposedly revealing the death toll and damage amount from Hurricane Milton days before the storm even made landfall? No, that's not true: An Amazon spokesperson told Lead Stories "These answers are clearly incorrect and we are working to resolve this issue". Shortly afterwards Alexa started responding,…