Does a viral image of world leaders showing their middle fingers as an act of apparent disagreement with U.S. President Donald Trump show a real 2026 TIME Magazine cover? No, that's not true: The magazine's website did not contain such a cover. The image displayed shows signs strongly pointing to generative AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did Anthropic stage a leak of Claude's code as an April Fools' prank, an "exercise in controlled chaos"? No, that's not true: There was a leak of part of the source code for "Claude Code," Anthropic's AI-powered coding assistant. There is no evidence that the leak was intentional or timed to be an April Fools' joke as stated in a…

Does a photo show that a bald eagle landed on top of the Artemis II rocket on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, just before liftoff? No, that's not true: The bird is an AI creation, about three times larger than a real bald eagle. Online AI image detection tools also found it to be…

We agree with some very prominent people. Here's our proposal... Fact Checking Day on April 2, 2026 marks almost a year since Lead Stories published our last fact check as part of Meta's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership. Since that day we've published over 1500 fact checks on our U.S. website on topics ranging from fake Epstein Files emails mentioning Elon…

Is a video of a two-year-old running to their soldier dad authentic? No, that's not true: A detection tool flagged the video with a 99.7% probability of being AI-generated. Lead Stories did not find any version of the video that included identifiable information about the toddler or their family. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X…

Did "Mean Gene" Okerlund interview two "real" guys who bear an uncanny resemblance to the cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. Gene Okerlund died in 2019. The AI-generated "real" Beavis and Butt-Head look-alikes are just as fictional as the animated characters. Several versions of the fake interview with the same dialogue have been…

Is this a real photo from the Daily Mail showing Byron Noem wearing a light blue T-shirt with large fake breasts and a dog in the background? No, that's not true: That image of the husband of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is not one of the photos published by the British tabloid. The authentic photos of Byron Noem…

Is Donald Trump being added to the sculptures of the four presidents at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota as of April 1, 2026? No, that's not true: That was an April Fool's Day joke. The article that started the rumor was written under the pen name Olaf Priol -- an anagram of April Fool. The story appeared in…

Did Oprah Winfrey try to buy Sen. John Fetterman's vote on the "Big Beautiful Bill" for $20 million? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page known for its satirical content. The image supporting the claim is stamped with a warning label that says: "Satire. EVERYTHING on this page is FICTION." The claim appeared in a post…

Does a real image show a wife crying as she hugs her husband goodbye because he is deploying to Iran? No, that's not true: This is an AI-generated image that was published with a request for engagement. The page where this originated posts emotionally charged AI-generated images with captions asking for comments and shares. Other engagement bait themes include children…