Technology

Is batana oil a product that "thoroughly cleanses your organs and repairs any damage done to them"? No, that's not true: Batana oil is primarily used as a cosmetic product rather than for internal consumption. It is derived from the fruit of the American palm and is commonly used for hair and skin care. There is, however, no scientific evidence…

Does the video and caption in a social media post accurately portray a B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber flying over Miami as part of the moving of "missile defense systems" to "locations on the U.S. west coast"? No, that's not true: The footage of the military aircraft flying over a Miami beach actually displays an air show tribute for a holiday…

Was the children's show Peppa Pig based on a science experiment where a couple injected pig DNA into their daughter? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that this is a real story or that Peppa Pig originated from it. This claim was first posted on TikTok in 2021 as a joke. Lead Stories could not find any police…

Did Tucker Carlson in June 2023 warn a 100-foot-wide "fissure-crack" just opened the Yellowstone volcano? No, that's not true: This video is a mashup of various recycled claims and Lead Stories could find no evidence that former Fox News host Carlson had ever issued a warning about this volcano. Lead Stories did find other videos with similar headlines. Elon Musk,…

Did President Joe Biden confess in public that he "sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things"? No, that's not true: He was kidding members of the White House press corps, and he said that in his own words, as confirmed by the White House transcript of the speech. The claim appeared in a post…

Did a new robot designed and built by a robotics company in Japan, known as STN-YGF, arrive in the United States to serve and protect citizens? No, that's not true: This video has been edited to include computer-generated imagery (CGI). The original unedited video footage was filmed on August 10, 2021. It showed President Joe Biden disembarking from the Marine…

Does margarine cause macular degeneration? No, that's not true: While there is some evidence to suggest the consumption of certain foods and fats may play a role in and are associated with the development of macular degeneration and other forms of vision loss, Lead Stories found no peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support the declaration that eating margarine specifically will "cause…

Does this photo show the controller belonging to OceanGate's Titan on the seafloor after the submarine vessel suffered a "catastrophic implosion" while descending to the wreckage of RMS Titanic? No, that's not true: An image shared on social media that claimed to show the "cheapest part" of the vessel having "survived" was, in fact, an altered version of a photograph…

Did MSNBC try to pass off a fake picture of the Titan submersible wreckage found on the sea floor in a live broadcast of breaking news footage? No, that's not true: The image of the debris did not originate on a live MSNBC broadcast and does not show a piece of debris from the Titan submersible, or wreckage from any…

Does this post include a recording of the sounds detected during a search for the Titan submersible? No, that's not true: This audio comes from some other source and is not an authentic recording of sounds reportedly detected by sonobuoys deployed by Canadian search and rescue aircraft. No recordings of the detected sounds had been released to the public by…

Was the "missing OceanGate submarine found empty" at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean by search-and-rescue teams? No, that's not true: The U.S. Coast Guard said on June 22, 2023, that the OceanGate Titan suffered a "catastrophic implosion," killing all five men on board the submersible craft. The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on June 21, 2023, under…

Was OceanGate's Titan, the submarine vessel that disappeared while descending to the wreckage of RMS Titanic, rescued with all passengers alive three days after going missing on June 18, 2023? No, that's not true: In a news conference held June 22, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) found a debris field consistent with the…

Did Elon Musk offer Tucker Carlson the Twitter CEO job after Carlson was fired from Fox News? No, that's not true: The website that posted the story is a satirical site. It included quotes that were never posted on Twitter by Musk regarding Carlson. The CEO of Twitter at the time of writing was Linda Yaccarino. The claim appeared in…

Did a "top official with the World Economic Forum (WEF)" call for "religious scripture to be 'rewritten' by artificial intelligence (AI) to create a globalized 'new Bible'"? No, that's not true: Author and WEF contributor Yuval Noah Harari, who is not considered a "top official" with the international economic organization, did not call for a "new Bible" to be written…

Did federal prosecutors "quietly" drop all 13 criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed crypto-exchange FTX? No, that's not true: On June 14, 2023, prosecutors announced that, for the time being, they would withdraw five of the charges against him. However, Bankman-Fried still faces eight charges related to his alleged orchestration of a scheme involving billions of…

Does a photograph authentically show Tom Cruise with his two "stunt doubles"? No, that's not true: An image shared widely on social media in June 2023 was generated using the artificial intelligence program Midjourney, the image creator confirmed to Lead Stories. A version of the claim originated in an image shared to Twitter on June 7, 2023, (archived here) that…

Has the Chinese space program staged an elaborate and obvious hoax? Is an open glass jar with water in it sitting out on a table in plain sight during a mission evidence that they did not really go into space? No, that's not true: Shenzhou-13 was one of a series of manned space missions by China National Space Agency. This…

Do photos show that the craft store chain Hobby Lobby is selling demonic statues? No, that's not true: These images have been created by an AI artist. The images originated on Reddit and Facebook in groups for AI art. Hive Moderation, a program that detects whether content is AI-generated or not, concluded that there is a 99.9 percent chance that…

Did astronaut Buzz Aldrin say the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing "didn't happen"? No, that's not true: The video clip in the post that makes this claim is misleading since it left out important context from one of Aldrin's quotes in a 2015 question-and-answer session. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on June 11, 2023. The caption opened:…

Is livestreamed footage of the lunar module Challenger's 1972 takeoff from the moon fake since the technology did not exist at the time to livestream such an event? No, that's not true: NASA's chief historian confirmed to Lead Stories that the "footage is authentic to the Apollo 17 mission." As part of the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s,…