Are U.S. soldiers "openly refusing orders" to deploy "en masse" to Iran as a viral Facebook post claimed? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that large numbers of American service members are refusing deployment orders. Claims circulating on social media misrepresent online activity, and the hashtags #SoldiersRefuse and #NoWarWithIran are not trending No. 1 worldwide with 18 million…
Did a dozen celebrities including Rob Schneider, Jerry Seinfeld, Pete Buttigieg and Pete Hegseth each launch "the first anti-woke morning show" on Fox, as Facebook posts claim? No, that's not true: Fox made no such announcement, nor did the celebrities whose names were pasted into identical fake stories about the claim, written with no apparent understanding of federal employment rules…
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…
Did U.S. President Donald Trump call the 'mother of all deals' trade agreement between India and the EU. a 'high school science project' on Truth Social? No, that's not true: A viral image with those words did not show an actual social media post by President Trump. It had a satire disclaimer near the bottom and was initially published by…
Was Evan Kilgore the federal agent who shot and killed U.S. citizen and registered nurse Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement raid in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: Kilgore denied he worked for immigration enforcement agencies and threatened to sue those who spread the claim on social media. Lead Stories found nothing suggesting that the conservative commentator had built a…
Does real bodycam video show a local policeman demanding that a Brinks truck driver open the cargo hold of a truck that was "a federal asset"? No, that's not true: The video is watermarked "A.I. BodyCam VIDEOS" by the page that posted it, which says in its page bio that it creates "fictional...Dramatic, scripted bodycam vids." The font of the…
Does this viral video show a ceremony during the Minnesota Timberwolves game Jan. 8, 2026 to commemorate the death of Renee Good? No, that's not true: The video was posted on a satire account. The video shows the wrong jerseys for the Timberwolves. Players for the Timberwolves and Cavaliers did stand silently to honor the 37-year-old Minneapolis woman shot and…
Does an authentic video show the moment when a curious black bear climbed on a porch railing and woke a napping man? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. It has the watermark of Sora, an app from OpenAI which can generate videos from text-based prompts. The video (archived here) was posted on X by @DisrespectedThe on Oct. 6,…
Did President Trump sign an executive order demanding that Universal Music Group sign his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to a multi-album record deal? No, that's not true: The claim posted on a self-described parody account on X has no basis in reality. The White House website does not mention such an executive order. President Trump has not posted anything about it…
Did the FBI have 274 plainclothes agents undercover and embedded in January 6 crowds at the US Capitol? No, that's not true: Many of 274 FBI agents documented in a report were part of the law enforcement response after the crowd stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The agents were not undercover nor were they embedded in the crowd.…
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.
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