&Quot;The View&Quot;

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…

Does the potassium in a banana react with the aluminum of a license plate so that somehow traffic cameras cannot record the numbers on the plate, but only see a glare? No, that's not true: The effect shown is not the result of a chemical reaction -- this video is a joke aimed at "someone who deserves traffic tickets" that…

Does a "documentary" called "HOW EARTH BECAME A BALL" prove that the Earth is flat? No, that's not true: Although it's presented as a documentary, "HOW EARTH BECAME A BALL" is an unauthorized repackaging of a 1990 Canadian satirical movie, "In Search of the Edge." It's a mockumentary about flat Earth (FE) theory. John Hoskyns-Abrahall with Bullfrog Films, the distributor…

Were pyramids that are twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids found in Russian Lapland and does the photo with this article accurately represent what they look like? No, that's not true: Clickbait photos misrepresent what the Kola Peninsula is, and exaggerations surround a 2007 expedition to investigate some unusually shaped hills on the Peninsula. Footage from that expedition was…

Do rock formations that resemble elephants prove that giants once ruled the world? No, that's not true: These two formations -- one in Heimaey, Iceland, and the other off the eastern shore of Molokai in the U.S. state of Hawaii -- were both created by volcanic activity and ocean waves. They were not carved by the hands of a race…

Did NASA stop investigating the deepest layers of the world's oceans 34 years ago? No, that's not true: NASA's main exploration ventures are in space, but, according to the agency's website, it still explores the ocean, too. A claim asserting that NASA has stopped its oceanographic work appeared in an Instagram video on August 30, 2022. The video appears to…

Did France 2 intentionally misinform its audiences about an incident in the war in Ukraine on August 10, 2022? No, that's not true: The French TV channel's report about a strike that hit buildings surrounding Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overall correctly reflected the situation on that day, but one segment misidentified a building chimney as an unexploded missile. In…