Technology

Did Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo impose a 50 percent retaliatory tariff on Tesla cars sold in Mexico, calling Elon Musk "pendejo"? No, that's not true: As of February 4, 2025, Lead Stories found no credible media or government reports confirming that she ever said what social media attributed to her. U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 3, 2025,…

Did Elon Musk say two Boeing Starliner astronauts died in space, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were shown conducting a spacewalk nearly a month after the post -- and there's no record of Musk ever having made the statements attributed to him in the social media post. On February…

Did a Black Hawk helicopter fail to respond to warnings seconds before colliding with a civilian airliner that was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025? No, that's not true: Air traffic control audio archives show the helicopter crew acknowledged two advisories from air traffic controllers to avoid the oncoming aircraft. Transportation Secretary Sean…

Does flight path data on a map prove that Flight 5342 suddenly reversed direction before fatally crashing into the Potomac River? No, that's not true: The reversal shown in a clip streamed by global flight tracking service Flightradar24 was due to a "jump" in data. That was caused by the program switching between data sources, a company spokesperson told Lead…

Was the military helicopter involved in the plane crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025, "flying dark," as it was supposed to be broadcasting with an ADS-B transponder signal? No, that's not true: While the Black Hawk helicopter was not using ADS-B, it was still operating properly within the airspace, according to flight data and to…

Does an old photo show Elon Musk's grandfather Joshua Haldeman standing in front of the office of Technocracy Inc. in Canada? No, that's not true: The black-and-white image shows Howard Scott, an American engineer who founded the technocracy movement in 1933, according to reverse image search results. Haldeman's obituary says he was a chiropractor in Canada. The claim appeared as…

Does Elon Musk not "do" patents as claimed in a Facebook post by NeuroVigil chairman and CEO Philip Low? No, that's not true in at least several documented cases: a search of the U.S. patent office website showed 14 patent documents with Musk's name on them. Several of the documents also listed the names of other people as inventors, alongside…

Did Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, publicly say in January 2025 that he "will leave the USA if the Epstein Client List is released"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports to support Gates' supposed announced departure. Court materials detailing Jeffrey Epstein's contacts were made public in January 2024. Neither Gates nor any reputable news organization…

Did Instagram and its parent company, Meta, force users to follow Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The accounts in question are reserved for the sitting vice president and president, respectively. Ownership was transferred to the leaders shortly after they assumed office. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on January 21, 2025.…

Are there 45 electric firetrucks in Los Angeles that had to go back to the fire department for 10 hours a day to recharge while the January 2025 wildfires burned? No, that's not true: According to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson the LAFD "has only one electric fire engine and no electric fire trucks" and that one is equipped…

Is there evidence that California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered firefighters not to use Starlink modems while battling wildfires in the Los Angeles area in January 2025? No, that's not true: Newsom denied allegations he had ordered the modems to be confiscated in a post on X. Any firefighter who needs a Starlink device can get one through the Los Angeles…

Did Tesla batteries cause the fire at the Monterey, California, power plant on January 16, 2025 or was their presence related to it? No, that's not true: Fire officials said the fire at the Moss Landing facility started inside a building operated by Vistra Energy, not at a nearby Tesla battery storage area. A Vistra Energy spokesperson told Lead Stories…

Does a video show the "son of a famous Ukrainian prosecutor" who "was spotted in Monaco enjoying his car" during the Russian-Ukrainian war in January 2025? No, that's not true: Lead Stories analysis showed that neither the date, place or identity of the person matched the clip's description. The video was recorded in Florida in 2023 and showed a Ukrainian…

Does a video show real wildfire scenes of firefighters in rugged terrain, fire raging and a suburban neighborhood in California? No, that's not true: This video on Facebook is AI generated. Lead Stories tracked the source of a clip in this video back to a TikTok creator who has their account marked, "AI Lover." They have published 69 AI generated…

Were the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires intentionally set to implement "smart city" technology across Los Angeles? No, that's not true: While the cause of the wildfires had not been determined at the time of writing, the "smart city" effort to improve technology for municipalities does not include intentionally destroying them first. Los Angeles unveiled its plan to eventually add…

Did Elon Musk start a public campaign in early January 2025 to cancel "The View"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no confirmation that Musk posted what was attributed to him. No media organizations indexed by Google News reported on what was described as a public campaign. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads on January…

Does the swinging action of stuffed toys hanging from the ceiling of the Soyuz crew capsule prove that the spacecraft is not really producing the expected G forces during a launch into orbit, suggesting fakery? No, that's not true: A spacecraft will experience varying G forces and vibrations during launch. A social media post's short video clip was taken from…

Did a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study find that children who received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to get infected than those who are unvaccinated? No, that's not true: The study of children aged six months to four years found there was not a big difference in infection rates, especially for those who hadn't had COVID…

Did a Facebook post prove Elon Musk and Taylor Swift jointly endorsed a power-saving device called "Stop Watt"? No, that's not true: There is no record of either Musk or Swift publicly endorsing this product. Photos used in social media posts that reported the supposed endorsement were found to have likely been AI-generated. These posts included a link to a…

Did a large drone crash in New York City on Christmas Eve 2024 as claimed by a video posted on X? No, that's not true: There are several clues in the video that point to it being AI-generated and the account that posted it published several other similarly themed videos around the same time. True Media, an online AI detection…