Did Elon Musk reveal plans to buy CBS after Feb. 20? No, that's not true: The claim appeared on a Facebook page aimed at American and European audiences but produced in Vietnam. It is part of a clickbait operation that uses AI tools and is described by some fact-checkers as "Viet Spam." The article claims Musk made the announcement on…
Does a viral post correctly describe two criminal cases when it claims "three British men" were jailed longer than an "illegal migrant rapist" asylum seeker they protested against? No, that's not true: According to court records, the men were caught on video clashing with the police, and the judge made it clear that it was not protesting that brought them…
Do emails exchanged between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein and made public in January 2026 show that Musk rejected Epstein's invitation to his private island? No, that's not true: Emails show Musk and Epstein planned holiday visits at the end of 2012 and 2013, but their schedules eventually did not align. Both men seemed eager to meet up on Epstein's…
Was there an email thread with Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein discussing an "epic island vacation" included in the latest release from the "Epstein Files" as implied by a viral image? No, that's not true: No email with the phrase "epic island vacation" appears in the released documents. The phrase "deal withthis . thanyou" visible in the image doesn't appear…
Did Stevie Nicks, Tom Brady, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Elon Musk, or dozens of other entertainers, sports stars, or media figures defend Donald Trump from accusations he's authoritarian and trying to cancel elections? No, that's not true: The identical story is told about at least 55 celebrities who purportedly said "This disorder is being used to scare Americans. To convince…
Does a real photo show Elon Musk and Ted Cruz posing together while two furries are passing in the background? No, that's not true: A real photo that was posted on Instagram by Ted Cruz has been digitally altered. The changes to the photo are subtle, but unflattering. The faces of the two men have been changed to take away…
Is "Tech world on fire" over news that Elon Musk bought Facebook in order to "delete it"? No, that's not true: Meta (which owns Facebook) had not, as of this writing, announced or documented a sale, as is required of publicly traded companies. Lead Stories found no credible news reports of an impending sale to Musk. The site that generated…
Did Elon Musk acquire Donald Trump's Truth Social for $10 billion in November 2025? No, that's not true: A message purporting to be from Donald Trump's Truth Social account was fake. The person who posted a fake screenshot of the fake message wrote that they did so to entertain themselves. There are no news reports of Musk buying Truth Social…
Did prominent Americans like Elon Musk, Caitlin Clark, Stephen Colbert, and Joy Behar each pay down $667,000 of schoolkids' lunchroom debts? No, there's no evidence that's true: In the case of FBI Director Kash Patel, the gift was inflated to $979,000, which would be more than five times his FBI salary.The posts making the claims include no evidence by which…
This is what fact checkers call a "prebunk." A prebunk is like a debunk (another word for fact check), only it's an advance notice of an anticipated false claim. This article is intended to inoculate you from future outbreaks of a specific type of false claims about your favorite entertainment celebrities, sports stars, and politicians. We call this "Viet Spam"…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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