Does a viral image show a real restaurant bill from Le Club 55 in St. Tropez for 689,235.43 EUR? No, that's not true: It displayed a nonexistent business code and contained math errors. Le Club 55 told Lead Stories that the restaurant doesn't even serve what appeared on the receipt. Four online tools said that the image was generated by…
Does a real video show a transgender woman threatening her neighbor with guns after she was misgendered? No, that's not true: The scene depicted in the video is a skit from the social media creator Spicy Jayy. The apartment door with a Ring doorbell camera appears in several Spicy Jayy videos -- sometimes with the door open and members of…
Maryna Stupak is a freelance fact-checker and journalist. She has worked as a Kyiv-based freelance journalist for international media outlets, including a joint project by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, as well as a project by Poland's public broadcaster, Telewizja Polska. She has also been a presenter on an analytical news programme produced for YouTube by Suspilne,…
Was a man named "François Faivre", the supposed surgeon who "announced Brigitte Macron's transgender transformation," found dead in Paris in June 2026? No, that's not true: Lead Stories searched the French national registry of the deceased but found no exact matches. The claim came from a video showing AI-generated people that has resurfaced on the internet multiple times since 2025.…
Does a real video show a group of Muslim men kneeling on prayer rugs while riding on the London Tube? No, that's not true: The Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool determined the video was 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. There are multiple glitches and inconsistencies in the video pointing to the video being AI-generated -- one man has six…
Is Jason R. Day a real performance artist and impersonator who disappeared in 2012? No, that's not true: Day is an AI-generated character intended to satirize University of Cambridge professor Jason Arday in a fabricated Wikipedia page. Arday has been accused of plagiarism and of falsely exaggerating his achievements, including a claim to hold a "visiting professor" position at the…
Is suspected Spokane arsonist Aaron F. Farinacci a registered Republican voter? No, that's not true: Voters in Washington state do not register by political party, according to the Washington Secretary of State's office. Voters in the state can become members of any political party by contacting the party directly, but they are not "registered" as members of a party when…
Did a new "Christian men's gym" in Georgia that bans women so pious men can have "lust-free workouts" have three men caught "violating Leviticus in the locker room" just six days after opening? No, that's not true: The claim appeared from an X account that is labeled "halfway true comedy and satire." Lead Stories found no credible news reports of…
Did Reuters publish a photo which shows a Moroccan police officer about to throw a rock down on a migrant who is crawling up a rocky embankment? No, that's not true: This image was made with OpenAI tools, it was not published by Reuters. The image closely resembles a scene which really did occur in or near the Spanish territory…
Does a viral image show the real face of a woman who seemed to have waved at migrants in Ceuta, Spain? No, that's not true: The picture portrayed the woman with an anatomically impossible nose. The image was generated by AI, according to AI verification tools and instructions for the original version of the image. The claim appeared in a…
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