Society

Did a Dollar General Store post a sign saying a self-checkout station was closed "Due to Niggers"? No, that's not true: The actual sign shared on X by Jack Posobiec on May 15, 2025, read "Due to Dishonesty," but hours later another account posted a digitally-altered image that replaced "Dishonesty" with the N-word. The sign photo was originally published on…

Does a viral bodycam video authentically show a cop pulling over a black judge and then the police officer "lives to regret it?" No, that's not true: The video originated from a channel that publishes re-enactments using the same actors repeatedly in supposedly unrelated roles and situations. While the YouTube channel's description claims to "bring you real, unfiltered bodycam footage,"…

Does a viral video show a crowd of passengers streaming off a ferry that has landed in Germany? No, that's not true: It's just a re-post of an old video, with a label mis-identifying the location. Nothing in the post provides verification of the claim that it shows Germany, while an earlier post of the exact same video identifies it…

Does a viral post show an Australian man being arrested for trying to take AU$5,000 from his bank account at a Commonwealth Bank branch in a suburb of Sydney? No, that's not true: Police records show the man was arrested for behaving offensively in public, not for any financial crime. He was also charged with hindering officers who tried to…

Does an authentic video show U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he's "declaring war on fat, gay kids, not the kids themselves but whatever is making them so fat, gay, and pathetic?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "a deepfake, quite obviously" appears in the last second of the 55-second clip. The…

Did Sam Smith and Pamela Anderson trade insults in May 2025, after Anderson's appearance at that year's Met Gala in New York City? No, that's not true: An account of a "bitter feud" between them was no more than a fabrication. The original source, Wakefield News, describes its output as satirical in nature. The exchange of insults was presented as…

Does a video posted to social media show Pope Leo XIV turning away from a Pride flag as he moves through a receiving line? No, that's not true: It's not a Pride flag but a flag commonly flown at Italian peace marches that says "PACE," which is Italian for "peace". Furthermore, it's not clear the Pope turned specifically away from…

Did Florida statistics show that the Pfizer COVID vaccine "likely KILLED over 470,000 Americans" and "increased your risk of death by at least 36%"? No, that's not true: A draft research paper found only that those who got the Pfizer vaccine had a higher rate of death from all causes than did those who received the Moderna vaccine but it…

Did the UK government or Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves institute a levy on windows consisting of a £3.70 monthly fee on each, as of May 13, 2025? No, that's not true: No official sources made such an announcement. The window tax was abandoned in the U.K. by the mid-19th century. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Does a viral image prove that a facility in Northern Pakistan experienced a radiation leak shortly after midnight on May 11, 2025? No, that's not true: What was described as an official government confirmation in posts on social media contained multiple inconsistencies and spelling mistakes, strongly pointing to forgery. The website of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which the "memo"…

Did a widely-shared video show an authentic gas station encounter between a "racist cop" and a Black "Navy Seal"? No, that's not true: The video originated on a Facebook page that publishes dramatic, scripted public disputes. The individuals in the footage were actors. The video was presented as authentic in a May 10, 2025, post on TikTok (archived here). Embedded…

Did online posts accurately show a woman dancing with a "Trump 2024" flag, then being deported? No, that's not true: The posts combined two clips that showed entirely different people. The first was Lenette Saunders, who posted "Latinos celebrating Papi Trump's victory" in November 2024. The second woman was Alejandra Juarez, who was deported in 2018. The claim appeared in…

Does an authentic video show President Trump saying "Lopping off someone's ding-a-long doesn't make them a woman, it makes them a eunuch?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "a deepfake, quite obviously" appears in the last second of the clip. The video was posted on an X account that has previously shared videos that replaced Trump's…

Did U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi publicly confirm a RICO investigation against the Clinton, Obama and Biden families? No, that's not true: Neither the Attorney General's website nor credible media organizations show the purported announcement. The account that posted the claim displayed a satire label. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on…

Did a viral post on X.com authentically show a wave crashing over the rear deck of a yacht and washing "Eliteists" overboard at sea? No, that's not true: The video originates from a YouTube account that labels its material as having been made by generative AI. Clear evidence of the video's artificiality is visible, such as when humans suddenly appear…

Does a viral clip authentically show law enforcement bodycam footage capturing officers demanding that an "army colonel" show his ID while at a clothing store? No, that's not true: The video previously appeared on a page on Facebook associated with a privately owned entity, not any law enforcement agency. It published multiple clips imitating authentic body-cam footage but most of…

ROME - That puff of white from atop the Sistine Chapel has long been a starting gun for conspiracists. With a new character in the story, they proclaim they alone tell the truth about dark forces playing pontifical puppeteers. These stories humans tell to make simple sense of complex events move ever faster, now that there's money to be made…

Was Shiloh Hendrix's campaign to raise $1,000,000 frozen, as of midday May 9, 2025? No, that's not true: The crowd-funding platform told Lead Stories that the money is still available to the campaign owner. While working on this article, a Lead Stories reporter observed that donations were still coming in. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X…

Did Robert Francis Prevost moonlight as "Bobby Prev", a "celebrated jazz trombonist" in Chicago who "headlined several jazz festivals in the '70s and '80s"? No, that's not true: The archives of the Chicago Tribune, which has long provided detailed coverage of jazz, contain no celebrations or even mentions of such a musician. Similarly, a search of the GoogleNews index of…

Do viral posts prove that the tech billionaire decided to celebrate American ice skater Alysa Liu's gold medal at the 2025 women's championship by giving her a Tesla? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports confirming it. Musk's and Liu's accounts on social media don't offer any support for the claim, either. The claim appeared in a…