Elon Musk

Are viral posts claiming your favorite celebrity family adopted or had twin babies and giving them names that "are taking the internet by storm" real? No, that's not true: Nearly identical posts naming at least 49 celebrity families were distributed on Facebook in mid-April 2026 by a spam network managed from Vietnam. The posts appear to be AI-generated and have…

We agree with some very prominent people. Here's our proposal... Fact Checking Day on April 2, 2026 marks almost a year since Lead Stories published our last fact check as part of Meta's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership. Since that day we've published over 1500 fact checks on our U.S. website on topics ranging from fake Epstein Files emails mentioning Elon…

Did U.K. police investigate a man over his X username "ChingChongChinaman" or something similar? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that police in the United Kingdom spoke to a man following a complaint about an "offensive" username. Screenshots of a purported firsthand encounter with law enforcement were traced to a Reddit account that has since been banned. The…

Did Keanu Reeves, Clint Black, Billy Joel and other celebrities suddenly all discover that a woman who once cared for them was still working part time at 85 to pay her rent? No, that's not true: The sob story about all of them "stepping in" and donating a "permanent home" and "financial support" was made up by a network of…

Did Variety report that Ian Miles Cheong was killed by an Iranian missile in Dubai? No, that's not true: Only one story on the Variety website mentions Cheong, and it was published five months before the Iranian strikes on the city in the United Arab Emirates. Cheong also posted a video of himself walking around the Dubai Mall on March…

Did the family of Epstein's late survivor Virginia Giuffre, Stephen Colbert or Elon Musk spend millions of dollars to file a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other people? No, that's not true: A federal court database showed no such case filed by Giuffre's surviving brother, and credible media organizations did not publish any reports of such a…

Does a legitimate screenshot show that Elon Musk in February of 2026 wrote "I agree with the teachings of Jesus," in an X post? Yes, that's true: The X owner did post that message on his verified account. The screenshot does not alter his post. The claim appeared in a February 17, 2026, post on X.com account @TheRealThelmaJ1 (archived here).…

Did various celebrities, including Adam Sandler, Jeanine Pirro and Vince Gill, unveil or introduce a "new bill" that would block George Soros from bankrolling protests by classifying such funding as "organized crime under the RICO Act"? No, that's not true: There were no news articles about such an event and the link provided in a Facebook post with the Adam…

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…