Water

Was a video showing a terrified woman pleading for help as she is tortured in a tank filling with water from the Epstein files or from the movie "The Cell"? No, that's not true: The video was a scene from a 2016 Egyptian TV show called "The Exit Series." The video clip went viral on social media in February 2026,…

Does a real video show a landlord forcibly evicting a tenant while new tenants are already waiting on the doorstep? No, that's not true: The video is scripted entertainment content by a production company. The production watermark has been blurred out on the video posted on X, hiding the entertainment origin of the video. The claim appeared in a video…

Have you seen viral videos showing elaborate movie sets of small-scale cities and landscapes where the crew creates special effects -- explosions and natural disasters -- in front of a blue or green screen? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real…

Does a real screenshot show a White House X post with "Nintendo Lives Matter" and images of what appear to be George Floyd and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the image ever appeared on the White House's X account. An AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image…

Have you seen viral videos of what look like female robots marketed on social media as girlfriends for human men? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They appear to be engagement bait aimed at exploiting sexual desires in certain audiences. This article is part of…

Have you seen viral videos showing a courtroom sentencing where the convicted person is an over-the-top villain? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations but are clickbait entertainment, possibly intended to ragebait people over stereotypes involved in…

Have you seen a viral video showing a beautiful policewoman asking for engagement or friendship, a simple "Hello" or a follow? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations although the videos are produced for audiences in several…

Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated image of himself standing between Gen. George Patton and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with all three men wearing inaccurate uniforms? Yes, that's true: The image appeared on his Truth Social account. An AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools. Another concluded that it was very likely…

Did an Aug. 3, 2026, procession in Louisville bring the corpse of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to the coroner's office there? No, that's not true: The Louisville Metro Police Department told Lead Stories that reports involving McConnell were "completely false" and said authorities were escorting the body of an officer who had died. As of Aug. 5, 2026, there…

Does a real video show a transgender woman threatening her neighbor with guns after she was misgendered? No, that's not true: The scene depicted in the video is a skit from the social media creator Spicy Jayy. The apartment door with a Ring doorbell camera appears in several Spicy Jayy videos -- sometimes with the door open and members of…