Business

Did X Engineering post that "bookmarks will be public for accounts that are not subscribed to X Premium" starting next week? No, that's not true: A falsified screenshot showed such a post made on July 10, 2025 but in reality it did not appear on the account. The faked screenshot originally appeared on a parody account on X. The faked…

Does a viral video really show body camera footage of a "crazy Karen" being arrested for keying a Tesla and shooting the driver's side three times with a handgun? No, that's not true: The "Axon bodycam" timestamp in the video is a fake that does not match the struck-through zeroes seen in real police video time stamps. The bullet holes…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write on Truth Social that he regretted taking "advise" from tech billionaire Elon Musk, and affirm that there was no "white genocide" in South Africa? No, that's not true: A screenshot shared widely in July 2025 was digitally edited. An archive of the president's account on Truth Social showed that such a post never existed.…

Did President Donald Trump post the board of Tesla should approve a new compensation package for Elon Musk, "ASAP" and to get him "P-A-I-D"? No, that's not true: A viral image that showed such a post was fake. The Truth Social post was not found on Trump's account or on a site that archives all his posts. The bogus Trump…

Did Dunkin' Donuts' CEO announce in June 2025 that a woke ad campaign cost the company $1 billion, forcing it to backtrack? No, that's not true: The story is fiction and copies the idea, but not the words, of a September 2024 spoof produced by a Facebook page specializing in satirical news stories. No evidence-based news organization has published or…

Does a "Boeing Memorandum" shared on social media show a real "Stratoshade" trademark for a jet fuel additive to reduce solar radiation? No, that's not true: The image, purporting to be from the "Boeing Atmospheric Management Division" contains the name "Stratoshade" followed by a trademark symbol. However there is no such trademark in the United States Patent And Trademark Office…

Did President Trump announce in a video that the production of Tesla cars would be banned in the United States? No, that's not true:The audio in the viral video, in which Trump could also be heard calling Elon Musk a "snake", was generated using AI according to a detection tool. It originated on an Instagram account with "AI" in its…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write on Truth Social that Elon Musk left the White House administration after "a very tense meeting about travel to Mars" during which the tech billionaire brought up an "implication" of bringing women to spaceships? No, that's not true: Neither Trump's posts on Truth Social nor an archive of his entries confirm he ever published…

Do viral screenshots prove that U.S. taxpayers paid $411,634.00 for Senator Lindsey Graham's hotel stay in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2025? No, that's not true: His name is not linked to the spending documented in the images. The Department of State told Lead Stories that the screenshot of the agency's government contract in Ukraine had nothing to do with congressional…

Does a cropped screenshot of a Google Trends chart of search term usage prove Tesla owners were "scrambling to remove their anti Elon stickers" on June 5, 2025, the day Musk began to publicly feud with Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The screenshot is fake and does not show actual data. Looking the past seven days of data, June…

Was U.S. President Donald Trump's account on X blocked again in the aftermath of the public feud with the platform's owner Elon Musk on June 5, 2025? No, that's not true: The account was still active, as of this writing. The screenshot that resurfaced on social media showed what Trump's account looked like in 2021 - after he had been…

Did Donald Trump announce he is imposing a 300% penalty on landlords who raise rents excessively? No, that's not true: No White House news releases or videos corroborate that. The rumor arises from a fake news-style video providing no authentic quotes, links, interviews or other evidence Trump made such a proposal. The claim appeared on a June 3, 2025 TikTok…

Did Chick-Fil-A drop a new advertisement for Pride Month 2025 that includes the slogan "Our pickles don't touch. Just like God intended."? No, that's not true: The ad is a fake and has circulated online for several years. There is no trace of it in the news or on the company's website. Lead Stories reached out for comment but has…

Did a Florida court rule that two newsrooms have to be stripped of their Pulitzer Prizes for covering the role of Russia in the 2016 election campaign? No, that's not true: The court's ruling was procedural. The judge only allowed the case to continue, denying the defendants' petition for a stay. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Does a viral image authentically show a "1930 Russian/Soviet 'Tarantaika'"? No, that's not true: The picture was likely AI generated. The same picture was previously falsely claimed to have been a "restored 1875 chuckwagon" and Nicola Tesla's invention. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on May 26, 2025. It opened: 1930 Russian/Soviet 'Tarantaika' (Boneshaker). The…

Did Disney World announce it will remove all American flags from its parks and replace them with other flags? No, that's not true: The rumor originated from a self-described parody website, Mouse Trap News. It specializes in publishing made-up stories about Disney. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook where it was published on May 27, 2025.…

Does a social media video authentically show a flight attendant with a "ripped bloody shoulder" on the top platform of the airstair when French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife arrived at Hanoi International Airport on May 25, 2025? No, that's not true: Footage of that moment captured by credible news agencies showed a scarf or patch on her shoulder.…

Does ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's sell a flavor called "From the River" featuring a Palestinian flag on the packaging? No, that's not true: A viral image which also showed people with "Press" on their clothes carrying watermelons and cameras was generated using artificial intelligence. Ben & Jerry's website featured no such flavor or packaging. The viral image appeared…

Several users are currently reporting Community Notes on X have disappeared from their timelines. This is not by itself unusual, sometimes notes that are voted "helpful" by Community Notes users later get downvoted into "not helpful" status. But right now it appears even notes that have reached "helpful" status in the Community Notes user interface are not being displayed on…

Does a viral video authentically show a "Polish Pilot" landing a Boeing 737 on just one wheel? No, that's not true: The footage of the plane, which also featured a "Mentzen 2025" campaign ad and a "Polski Pilot" logo, was created in a video game. The TikTok channel that originally published it said it was created in the "X Plane…