East Palestine

Did a video capture an exchange in which a "Queer for Palestine" supporter wanted to join a rally in Amsterdam but was told by other participants that "We are Muslims and you disgust us"? No, that's not true: A viral post reused a 2021 recording documenting a Dutch-language exchange that did not contain such a phrase. At the time, news…

Did a video shared widely in May 2025 authentically show President Donald Trump describing the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio as "the largest environmental terror attack in world history" and "an inside job"? No, that's not true: Trump never made such remarks. The clip in question contained fake audio and edited mouth movements, both likely the products of…

Did a man named "Arnold Bushman" light himself on fire to protest "Disney making the little mermaid black"? No, that's not true: A tweet from October 2024 with that claim was screenshotted and went viral again in early 2025. However the image in the post showed a man named Aaron Bushnell who immolated himself in February 2024 to protest the…

Did protesters hang a "giant banner" at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City in June 2024 of Iran's leader "thanking" Americans for pro-Palestinian rallies, as footage on social media appears to show? No, that's not true: The banner appears to have been added through generative AI, as initial video recordings of a protest at the museum on May 31,…

Does a viral video show Israeli strikes in Rafah in May 2024? No, that's not true: The video was first posted on November 10, 2023. At the time, news organizations published reports about most fighting being concentrated on the opposite side of Gaza -- not in the south where Rafah is, but in the north. The claim appeared in a…

Does a photo portray a funeral procession in southern Gaza after an Israeli strike on Rafah in late May 2024? No, that's not true: The image predates this particular attack. It shows a different funeral that took place in central Gaza on December 25, 2023, much farther from the border between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah. The claim appeared in…

Does a viral video prove that Israel voted "for Palestine" during a United Nations Security Council meeting? No, that's not true: In the meeting the then-president of the U.N. Security Council read a list of the countries supporting a resolution on Gaza days after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. He included Israel but he immediately corrected himself and…

Did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once say, "America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry," and then "destroy" it? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Netanyahu said this years before the Hamas-Israel war, or ever. The quotes are attributed to a transcript purportedly seen by an admitted misinformation peddler in 2015. But no…

Was the academic year in Gaza suspended because "all students" have died? No, that's not true: Available data suggests that most schoolchildren are still alive, even though the Hamas-Israel war has disrupted their education. While international organizations have drawn attention to the death toll among minors in the war, none state that Gaza's entire school-age population -- some 625,000 children,…

Was a 3-year-old Palestinian child detained in 2023 in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers as shown in a video? No, that's not true: This incident did happen in the town of Hebron in the West Bank; but it happened in 2018. As recorded in the video, the child's family succeeded in freeing the child from the soldier's grasp. The…