&Quot;Elon Musk&Quot;

Did U.K.'s Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly threaten to arrest X owner Elon Musk along with other "336 million Americans"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed Starmer's public comments about Musk and did not find anything remotely close to what social media attributed to the prime minister. The claim about hundreds of millions to be arrested is implausible on…

Does a Justice Department indictment document say the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and paid $300,000 to transport people there? No, that's not true, but it's complicated: The indictment states that one person did receive $300,000, but that SPLC paid that out over nine years. It also says that person "arranged…

Does a real photo show President Donald Trump and tech CEOs Elon Musk and Jensen Huang raising their fists in front of a Chinese flag? No, that's not true: The image shows common signs of AI generation. There are no credible news reports that the three men pledged allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party, nor any documentation of the fist-raising…

Does a viral image of U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Tim Cook, plus money manager Larry Fink eating Panda Express food show a real scene aboard Air Force One en route to China for an official visit in May 2026? No, that's not true: The image was generated or altered using AI. It…

Are viral posts claiming your favorite celebrity family adopted or had twin babies and giving them names that "are taking the internet by storm" real? No, that's not true: Nearly identical posts naming at least 49 celebrity families were distributed on Facebook in mid-April 2026 by a spam network managed from Vietnam. The posts appear to be AI-generated and have…

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…

Did U.K. police investigate a man over his X username "ChingChongChinaman" or something similar? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that police in the United Kingdom spoke to a man following a complaint about an "offensive" username. Screenshots of a purported firsthand encounter with law enforcement were traced to a Reddit account that has since been banned. The…

Did Keanu Reeves, Clint Black, Billy Joel and other celebrities suddenly all discover that a woman who once cared for them was still working part time at 85 to pay her rent? No, that's not true: The sob story about all of them "stepping in" and donating a "permanent home" and "financial support" was made up by a network of…

Did the family of Epstein's late survivor Virginia Giuffre, Stephen Colbert or Elon Musk spend millions of dollars to file a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other people? No, that's not true: A federal court database showed no such case filed by Giuffre's surviving brother, and credible media organizations did not publish any reports of such a…

Does a legitimate screenshot show that Elon Musk in February of 2026 wrote "I agree with the teachings of Jesus," in an X post? Yes, that's true: The X owner did post that message on his verified account. The screenshot does not alter his post. The claim appeared in a February 17, 2026, post on X.com account @TheRealThelmaJ1 (archived here).…