Does actual drone footage show a giant "eclipse Octopus" in the Gulf of America (sometimes also called the Gulf of Mexico)? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel with a disclaimer that says it publishes videos made with artificial intelligence tools and which posted many other faked animal videos. The "octopus" in the video also had…
Does a viral picture of what looks like an Israeli passport confirm that Volodymyr Zelenskyy became an Israeli citizen before he became president of Ukraine? No, that's not true: The image got the spelling of his last name wrong. The machine-readable text on the bottom of the first page didn't fit the internationally standardized form, either. The claim appeared in…
Is a video of a conversation between the Venezuelan ship Guaiquerí, commanded by Capt. Yonaiker Bermúdez, and the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Jason Durham legitimate? No, that's not true: The creator of the video said on social media that it was made as a parody, adding that it had "gone around the world as if it were real." The creator…
Does a video titled "Operation Metro Freeze" show real footage of a deportation flight in Minnesota? No, that's not true: AI made that clip. Early versions of it showed a watermark pointing to a specific generative AI tool and it's unlikely a military transport plane would have a tail number like the one in the video. The claim appeared in…
Did Arnold Schwarzenegger offer to "cover all funeral expenses for Rob Reiner and his wife"? No, that's not true: The original TikTok video was labeled AI-generated by the content creator. There has not been any reporting that Schwarzenegger made such an offer. He did post a brief tribute to his friend on X. The fake clip with a cloned voice…
Did retired Charleston detective Vincent Hayes solve a cold case by recognizing missing woman Aaliyah Porter's face in a wax figure at a gala? No, that's not true: This story is just another fabricated tale from a YouTube channel that has been riffing on a mystery theme where dead bodies are hidden in plain sight as medical models, dolls, mannequins…
Did Rob Reiner say he wished the would-be Donald Trump assassin "hadn't missed"? No, that's not true: A source close to the family told Lead Stories the claim is "nonsense." Lead Stories found no evidence that Reiner ever said he wished the gunman had killed Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024. Social media posts claiming that "liberals are all butt…
Was the "Obama Fraud Vault" showing $4.5 billion stolen from Obama's foundation released on Fox News live in December 2025? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories claiming that Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Jeanine Pirro, Greg Gutfeld, Sen. John Kennedy, and other conservative figures "just unleashed the Obama Fraud Vault on FOX live" were published by a network of websites…
Did the company behind the Roblox video game announce it is "shutting down on January 1st"? No, that's not true: A viral screenshot of such a message appeared on an account labeled "parody" on X. It did not come from the official company website and there were no news articles about any such shutdown. The image and claim appeared in…
Did Zohran Mamdani, Melania Trump, Sen. John Kennedy or other prominent Americans go live with a 3 a.m. emergency monologue claiming they were under threat for secrets they were about to expose about President Donald Trump or former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by a…
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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