&Quot;The View&Quot;

Did several videos in countries around the world accurately show that tiny sharp nails or pins were in medicine capsules sealed in tamper-evident blister packs? No, that's not true: In February 2021 several videos circulated on the internet showing adulterated medicine capsules. The medicines pictured, from different manufacturers, have limited distribution in several different countries. Aside from the suspicious videos…

Does a viral video portray Americans trying to escape real zombies? No, that's not true: There is no such thing as a zombie, outside fiction and cinema. The clip was recorded in Paris, France. The video captured a mass panic of shoppers following a loud noise caused by a suicide in a shopping center. The claim appeared in a video…

Do images circulating on social media show press photos of Anthony Fauci under arrest and in police custody? No, that's not true: Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has not been arrested. These are not photos of a real incident but are images generated by an artificial intelligence program. Jack Posobiec posted the…

Did DirecTV, an American video programming distributor, say it "will drop ABC" if the TV channel continues to broadcast "The View," a talk show originally created by Barbara Walters and, of this writing, co-hosted by Whoopi Goldberg? No, that's not true: The story first appeared on a satire website. The claim originated in an article (archived here) published by the…

Did the Central Intelligence Agency come up with the term "conspiracy theorist" to discredit the views of those casting doubts on the results of the official investigation into the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy? No, that's not true: Archival materials show that the term was in use before November 22, 1963, when the 35th president of the United States…

Did Elon Musk buy the ABC Network and cancel its daytime talk show "The View"? No, that's not true: This is a fabricated story that originated on a satire website run by Christopher Blair, who plainly discloses that "everything on this website is fiction." The story has been copied and reposted to another site without that disclaimer. The article from…

Did Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist, "announce" when and where the next pandemic will take place? No, that's not true: A video circulating on social media reused audiovisual material labeled as fictitious. The clip summarized a hypothetical scenario that was a part of an October 2022 international exercise aimed at improving preparedness for future pandemics. The story originated…

The celebrity death hoax has long been a clickbait staple, but recently one network has taken it to extremes, using scores of websites to host its content and an automated army of bots to push the links into Facebook groups. Many Facebook users and group administrators have noticed a sharp increase in spam postings of false death hoaxes. Examples of…

Does a photo of the Artemis I mission launch show that the rocket missed its target, falling short of the moon -- perhaps dropping into the ocean? No, that's not true: The launch went as planned and the Orion spacecraft orbited Earth once en route to the moon. This is a real photo of the launch of the uncrewed Orion…

Did the U.S. Air Force say, on the record, that the military branch wants to control the weather by 2025? No, that's not true: The Air Force public affairs team told Lead Stories that it is not Air Force policy to control the weather by 2025. The claim apparently traces back to a 1996 Air University research paper titled, "Weather…