Have you seen viral videos showing dogs being rescued from train or subway tracks? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people risking their lives to save their real pets. This article is part of a series of stories examining various…
Do videos show a migrant toppling a cross and a burning church in Ceuta, Spain? No, that's not true: Neither video used to support the claim is from the Spanish enclave. The first shows an incident from July 2026 in West Bengal, India, while the second shows a fire at a convent in Cuenca, central Spain, in May 2024. The…
Does a Ring video show Rep. Randy Fine, Florida's Sixth District congressman, looking through a mailbox while delivering a campaign flyer? Here's what we know so far: A Ring video dated Aug. 16, 2026, shows a bearded man wearing sunglasses and Randy Fine campaign garb, including a "Defend the Border" cap, standing on the porch of a home and holding…
Recognizing false claims and fake videos shared on social media is a challenge for U.S. voters as the 2026 midterm elections approach. That is why Lead Stories and several other fact-checking organizations active in North America are joining forces in a first-of-its-kind collaboration: a joint newsletter sharing their best election-related work. It features an overview of fact check articles that…
Did "border czar" Tom Homan say that Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City mayor Mamdani, had threatened to have him "disappear" if he came to New York? No, that's not true: The story originated from a network of Facebook pages with satire labels. There were no actual news reports about such a threat. The claim appeared in a post…
Does a video that shows political commentator Hasan Piker saying America should resume lynching Black people show him giving his own opinion? No, that's missing context: The words in question were not Piker's own, he was reading a comment. The original version of the deceptively edited clip shows Piker criticizing someone else's comments, not making the argument for lynching himself.…
Does a video show a migrant eating a rat in Europe? No, that's not true: The video does show a person eating a rodent, but it was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2024. It does not show a migrant in Europe as claimed in social media posts during the 2026 migrant influx in Ceuta, Spain, an autonomous city…
Have you seen viral videos showing elaborate movie sets of small-scale cities and landscapes where the crew creates special effects -- explosions and natural disasters -- in front of a blue or green screen? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real…
Have you seen viral videos showing a courtroom sentencing where the convicted person is an over-the-top villain? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations but are clickbait entertainment, possibly intended to ragebait people over stereotypes involved in…
Does a viral video actually show that an African migrant from a group rescued from the English Channel on August 7, 2026, said that he wanted "my money and my free house, and English woman"? No, that's not true: In reality, the man from the clip was filmed two years before the incident; he spoke Arabic, not English; and he…
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