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…
Did Bad Bunny and other famous people including Blake Shelton, Cardi B, Tom Jones, Andrea Bocelli say that they were supporting peaceful demonstrators via the National Defense Fund? No, that's not true: The claim was an example of so-called "Viet Spam" campaigns of nearly identical made-up clickbait stories, each featuring a different famous person, created to drive traffic to web…
Does a viral video show real-life confrontations involving transgender and LGBTQ+ people trying to access women's restrooms? No, that's not true: The clip was AI-generated. The account that posted it first had a corresponding label, and the video contained multiple artifacts that ruled out the possibility of it being authentic footage. The claim originated from a post (archived here, here…
Did Keanu Reeves, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, and many others say that children should be raised according to "traditional values" avoiding "LGBTQ themes"? No, that's not true: This is a fake ragebait story claiming that many fans are now boycotting celebrities over something they never said. Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by a…
Does a mid-twentieth-century photograph capture the consequences of a transorbital lobotomy performed on a man named "James Peterson" for being gay in 1948? No, that's not true: The image is not a photograph -- it's an image generated by the AI tool Grok, as a barely visible watermark in the bottom right corner indicated. The content of the picture contradicts…
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 your favorite sports star "shock fans" or "shake" the league by "publicly" or "flatly" refusing to wear an LGBT Rainbow Armband because it would turn the game "into a political circus"? No, that's not true: The claim was made about at least 95 football, soccer, basketball, baseball, and hockey players in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan…
Did singer Addison Rae accidentally leave a ChatGPT prompt in a "Thank You" letter for the Grammys? No, that's not true: A fake screenshot of such a message originated on a satirical account on X. The "Drop Pop" account is known for posting jokes at the expense of various celebrities and is clearly labeled as satire. The supposed message appeared…
Does a real video show a body-armor-wearing riot policeman smiling as he pepper-sprays a woman confronting him at a protest? No, that's not true: The video is labeled "Sora" with watermarks indicating it was created using OpenAI's text-to-video app. It originated on an account devoted to improbable wild animal videos, also labeled as Sora productions. Sora creates fake but "hyperreal"…
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.
Spotted something? Let us know!.
