&Quot;Martial Law&Quot;

Did Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently lost his reelection bid in a fiercely contested runoff, declare martial law on November 2, 2022? No, that's not true: A fake presidential decree circulating on social media that makes this declaration does not exist. It bears an out-of-sequence number and is not in Brazil's official language of Portuguese. While Bolsonaro had not…

Does the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency have a "Threat List" of 8 million Americans who will be detained or executed when martial law is imposed? No, that's not true: There's no evidence of such a list being compiled by the CIA or that it includes the names of 8 million U.S. citizens. Asked about the claim by Lead Stories, Joseph…

Ms. Susan Wojcicki, It's been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The world has seen time and time again how destructive disinformation and misinformation can be for social harmony, democracy, and public health; too many lives and livelihoods have been ruined, and far too many people have lost loved ones to disinformation. As an international network of fact-checking…

Did the government of Saskatchewan in Canada adopt an emergency order with the intention of instituting martial law -- shutting down travel with checkpoints, entering homes and seizing private property and disrupting the food supply by taking livestock and destroying crops? No. While it's true an emergency order was issued, this was to replace one that had expired to "provide…

Does a person's birth certificate, with their name spelled out in capital letters, create a second entity, a "straw man," that is owned by the state and is separate from the flesh and blood person given that name at birth? No, that's not true: This is an illegitimate theory promoted by several different conspiracist groups such as Sovereign Citizens, Freemen…

Was an interim military U.S. government installed in the days after a fake staged inauguration of Joe Biden was broadcast, and were 80 to 140 members of Congress arrested by the National Guard in the middle of the night on January 25, 2021, and did U.S. and Taiwanese fighter jets win a war with the Chinese Communist Party in a…

Does gold fringe on the American Flag signal imposition of Maritime or Martial Law? No, that's not true: Gold fringe is a decorative option. Although the U.S. Flag code makes no reference to gold fringe, it has been used since 1835. In 1895 the fringe was added to the flag of all regiments of the U.S. Army. The Marine Corps…

Is no American flag flying over the White House a signal the military is in control? No, that's not true: A claim has gone viral that no White House flag means there is "selective martial law or that the president has signed the Insurrection Act." There is no publicly available record of a signal involving the American flag not flying…

Did Lin Wood have iron-clad sources for his on-camera claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in a landslide, that COVID-19 is a mild flu China used as a weapon against the U.S. and that the Pfizer vaccine is dangerous? No, that's not true: In his interview on the "Patriotically Correct" show, the Atlanta lawyer recycled false claims that…

Did former politician Trey Gowdy say "If you're okay with rigging an election, I'm ok with martial law to stop you" as several social media posts are claiming? No, that's not true: there is no record of Gowdy ever saying these words, they do not appear on his social media accounts or in news reports about Gowdy. Gowdy denied to…