Technology

Did an ancient civilization in Africa build a nuclear reactor two billion years ago that was more advanced than a modern nuclear reactor and ran on 100-percent pure water? No, that's not true: About two billion years ago, in the area now known as the Oklo region of Gabon, Africa, several conditions existed that enabled a naturally produced chain reaction…

Were Dominion Voting System tabulators the machines that caused problems in Maricopa County, Arizona on Election Day, November 8, 2022? No, that's not true: "Runbeck is our printer vendor," Maricopa County Elections Department Communications Director Megan Gilberston told Lead Stories. "It was not the Dominion Voting System tabulators." Runbeck Election Services, Inc.'s spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories that it had…

Does a viral video prove that the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, and other speakers at WEF events planned to establish the "new world order" and "microchip human race"? No, that's not true: The heavily edited social media clip only shows short soundbites taken out of context, which alters the meaning of the speeches. The claim appeared…

Did the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) admit in a series of email exchanges that COVID-19 is man-made and that COVID vaccines were created with computer-generated DNA? No, that's not true: The MHRA told Lead Stories that the correspondence cited in a claim did take place, but the assertions made from those emails aren't correct. The claim…

Do midterm election graphs of unofficial, private election tallies used by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell on social media and on his Frank Speech website prove 2022 elections were stolen? No, that's not true: Spikes in the vote counts are a normal part of clean elections. A Lindell ally said he scraped and graphed data that Edison Research supplies to…

Was a baby found wandering alone behind someone's home without a parent or guardian, and did she say her mother's name is Wendy? No, that's not true: The child, who was only about 10 months old in the photos, was found at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on August 21, 2022, with a woman "in crisis" who was not her…

Does a social media video demonstrate how to cast a fraudulent vote online in Washington state's King County, home to the greater Seattle area? No, that's not true: The county has an online system that allows voters to mark their ballots, but it doesn't record votes, a county spokesperson told Lead Stories. Ballots must still be printed, signed and returned…

Does having Wi-Fi networks available at polling places mean voting machines are connected to the internet? No, that's not true: An expert told Lead Stories that assuming that the existence of a Wi-Fi network means that nearby voting machines are connected to it is incorrect. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 8, 2022. It opened: 👍 ATTENTION…

Did 16 million registered voters in New Mexico "drop overnight," within a 24-hour window before Election Day? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the New Mexico secretary of state's office, which helps administer elections, confirmed that the secretary of state's website had shown mock data while undergoing testing before the November 8 vote. A notice on the website, however,…

Did The Independent, an online British daily newspaper, publish an article by reporter Graeme Massie with the headline, "Elon Musk's father paid college $125,000 to ignore animal abuse claims"? No, that's not true: The Independent never published an article that said this. The screenshots posted on social media that make this claim are fabricated. A tweet with two fake screenshots…

Was the fact that Maricopa County, Arizona, experienced trouble with some of its tabulators early on Election Day proof of voter fraud? No, that's not true: There was a back-up plan in place to make sure every vote was counted. In the case of a problem with a precinct tabulator, a voter could place his or her ballot in a…

Did billionaire philanthropist George Soros fund the purchase of voting machines in order to rig the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: Elections are funded by taxpayer dollars and Soros has no connections to voting machine or voting software companies. The claim appeared in a November 6, 2022, Instagram post that uses a long string of hashtags for a…

Do videos show a voting machine at a New York polling place disregarding a voter's selections -- even though he made an effort to darken the selected circles? No, that's not true: The terminal pictured in the video is an AutoMARK assistive ballot marking device (BMD); it is not a tabulator for marked ballots. This terminal is designed to assist…

Has California perfected ballot harvesting? No, that's not true: California Secretary of State Communications Director Joe Kocurek told Lead Stories that the multiple claims about ballots in a social media post are false. Political parties do not send out ballots in California. All ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, not three days later, and voters are asked to provide…

Did a U.S.-based cable news network publish a story stating that Russian influencer Hasbulla Magomedov died in a drone strike while fighting in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The story is a satirical fake created to look like a credible news report that makes fun of a social media sensation with a genetic condition. The claim appeared in an Instagram…

Was billionaire Elon Musk killed in a rocket testing mishap at his space exploration company, SpaceX? No, that's not true: Musk has been active on his verified Twitter account since the claim was published and news organizations were not carrying reports of his untimely demise. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on November 2, 2022. It opened: ELON MUSK…

Is it impossible to find a "real photo" of Earth taken from space that is not computer generated? No, that's not true: Seventy-six years ago, on October 24, 1946, the first photo of Earth was taken from a V-2 rocket 65 miles above the New Mexico desert. The rocket fell back to Earth as planned, crashing in the desert, and…

Are seedless limes a product of bioengineering that involves technology to alter plants' DNA? No, that's not true: Seedlessness occurs in nature, and farmers may use traditional breeding techniques to maintain this quality. That does not turn seedless limes into bioengineered food, also commonly known as GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on November…

Were the Nazis and the Rockefellers responsible for changing the universal music standard for tuning A from 432 Hz to 440 Hz in 1953? No, that's not true: There are several falsehoods wrapped in this conspiracy about the establishment of this tuning standard, starting with the assertion that 432 Hz was the universal standard before a 440 Hz standard was…

Do Comirnaty (Pfizer) COVID-19 vaccines contain parasites? No, that's not true: Claims made on social media that COVID vaccines contain parasites provided no laboratory or independent evidence to support the allegations, and a medical examiner told Lead Stories she has never seen any "parasites with tentacles" during autopsies she's conducted on people who had received the vaccine. In a statement…