Is a photo that shows Melania Trump smiling and standing next to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell authentic? No, that's not true: Online detection tools flagged the image as likely digitally altered and likely AI-generated. One rated it as 97 percent likely to be digitally edited. The claim appeared in an April 10, 2026, post on X.com by the account…
Is a video that shows Jeffrey Epstein kissing a young woman authentic? No, that's not true: A detection tool flagged the video as likely AI-generated. There are several AI glitches that can be seen in the video. The claim appeared in a video posted on X on April 8, 2026, by the account @Unfiltered_Q (archived here). It opened: Epstein File…
Is a video of a defendant trying to escape from court by leaping toward the ceiling authentic? No, that's not true:A detection tool flagged the video as likely AI-generated. Additionally, Lead Stories could not find any official reports related to such a claim outside of social media posts. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Instagram on…
Does a photo show a "captured" American in Iran wearing an authentic U.S. military uniform? No, that's not true: The image is AI-generated, and online detection tools indicate it is fake, including a SynthID watermark indicating it was created or edited using Google AI tools. There are no reliable reports of an American service member being taken captive by Iran.…
Is an image of a smiling man in a combat uniform holding an American flag a real photo of a U.S. F-15 crew member after his rescue from Iran? No, that's not true: An AI content detection tool determined the image was AI-generated. The fake image fooled some people on social media, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who reposted it…
Did Anthropic stage a leak of Claude's code as an April Fools' prank, an "exercise in controlled chaos"? No, that's not true: There was a leak of part of the source code for "Claude Code," Anthropic's AI-powered coding assistant. There is no evidence that the leak was intentional or timed to be an April Fools' joke as stated in a…
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…
Is a video of a two-year-old running to their soldier dad authentic? No, that's not true: A detection tool flagged the video with a 99.7% probability of being AI-generated. Lead Stories did not find any version of the video that included identifiable information about the toddler or their family. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X…
Does a video widely shared on April Fool's Day show a real LGBTQ+ flag waving at an entrance to Amerant Bank Arena, a home stadium for the Florida Panthers? Yes, that's true: The video appeared on the hockey team's account on X, among other places. News reports confirmed that the flag was seen during the March 31, 2026, game. The…
Does a real photo show Australian politician Jacinta Allan with LGBTQ+ and Islamic country flags behind her? No, that's not true: It appears that another image was edited -- possibly using AI -- to create the photo of Allan with the flags in question. There is no reliable evidence to support the claim that Victoria's premier ever stood in front…
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