Satire

Did an Army prankster insert a photo of Jeffrey Epstein captioned "WHY WE FIGHT" into a "Manual for Warfighters" published by Pete Hegseth? No, that's not true: That story came from a satirical account on X that posts comedy content. There were no news reports about any such prank involving 100,000 printed copies for "soldiers training to invade Iran". The…

Did Dennis Rodman fly to Tehran to negotiate peace, and did Iran agree to a meeting? No, that's not true: An online AI image detection tool rated the image as 100% likely to be AI-generated, and a separate analysis detected a SynthID watermark indicating it was created or modified by Google's AI models. The information originated on a Facebook page…

Does a viral image prove that Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite convicted of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein, touched Melania Trump's breast while posing next to Donald Trump at a party in the early 2000s? No, that's not true: A real photo of them was digitally altered to change the position of Maxwell's hand. In the original shot, Maxwell's arm rests…

Did Kash Patel, Sen. John Kennedy, Pete Buttigieg, Vince Gill and others demand that former President Barack Obama return millions he earned through ownership related to "Obamacare"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories that swap-in those and other names are part of an international network of websites and Facebook pages that publish fake news stories about famous people to…

Did a meme about the "National Intelligence Agency" discovering Bernie Sanders owns several companies and bank accounts in China originate from actual news reports? No, that's not true: It originated on a satirical Facebook page run by a liberal man with a long history of tricking conservatives into sharing made-up content. The meme had an explicit disclaimer from the Facebook…

Does a real photo show Donald Trump Jr. at a shooting bench with the scope of his rifle mounted backwards? No, that's not true: This image has been digitally edited. An earlier copy of the image appears in a 2024 article with the scope mounted properly. The altered image appears in a post (archived here) published on Bluesky by @mrsbettybowers…

Did Kristi Noem say "If Jesus wanted America to speak Spanish and have the Super Bowl half time show in a foreign language, he would not have written the Bible in English."? No, that's not true: Noem did not say this. This fake quote came from a meme shared by a satire page that included a small watermark with the…

Is a viral image showing Bad Bunny burning a flag while preparing for the Super Bowl halftime show real? No, that's not true: The image, featuring the singer wearing a white, blue and pink striped dress and lighting an American flag on fire using a lighter, first appeared on a Facebook account that says it publishes satire. It also contained…

Does a viral video prove that Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk removed his wife from his will shortly before his murder? No, that's not true: The rumor originated from a self-described satire account. No professional media organization reported the purported change in the will. The claim initially appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on January 30,…

Is a photo of Ivanka Trump and Melania Trump cuddling with Jeffrey Epstein and Brett Ratner authentic? No, that's not true: The image in the social media post is clearly labeled "satire," and the caption states it is satire. The image was created by an artificial intelligence tool, according to an AI-generated content detector. The claim appeared in a February…