Business

Was a Pfizer manufacturing site in North Carolina that was damaged by a tornado "stocked with" COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: A Pfizer spokesperson told Lead Stories that COVID-19 vaccines are not made or stocked at the facility. The claim appeared in a post published to Instagram on July 19, 2023. It included a video that contained text reading…

Is a social media post featuring an audio recording of President Joe Biden talking about the banks collapsing real? No, that's not true: Experts in digital forensics and deepfakes told Lead Stories that the recording is not authentic. The claim appeared in a post and video on Instagram on April 22, 2023, under the title "President Biden. The fiat dollar…

Did the Financial Times report that a man was "arrested after he spent 17 years traveling the country with a hacked debit card that gave him the exact amount of money needed for any purchase"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Financial Times confirmed to Lead Stories that the outlet did not publish this story, and a search…

Does this video prove The Walt Disney Company plans to open "Disney-themed pediatric transgender clinics"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Disney has announced such a plan. The man who makes the claim admitted to posing as a Disney executive under the guise of "satire" in his YouTube video's description. There is nothing aside from that satirical…

Did Miss USA "Natasha Berkelston" state she "won't compete against a man" and boycott the 2023 Miss Universe pageant after Rikkie Kollé was named Miss Netherlands, becoming the first transgender woman to take the title? No, that's not true: This claim originated from a self-described satirical website aimed at trolling conservatives. The website that posted the information, The Dunning-Kruger Times,…

Did The Washington Post report that Bill Gates was "being held under armed watch at Guantanamo Bay" after having been "charged with war crimes against humanity"? No, that's not true: A search through the newspaper's digital database returned no such results, and no credible news publication or official government statement describing such an event was publicly available as of July…

Did the actor Mark Wahlberg declare war on "Hollywood pedophiles" in July 2023, announcing that they have "nowhere left to hide"? No, that's not true: The purported quote came from a source with a rich history of spreading false statements, and the actor's representative refuted the claim. Lead Stories found no evidence that the purported event ever took place. The…

Did the World Economic Forum (WEF) say that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) microchip must be "implanted under your skin" to participate in society? No, that's not true: Richard Werner, a German economist and professor who is not employed by the WEF, talked about the possible future use of microchip implants to regulate the availability of CBDC funds and…

Did Canadian journalist Mark Slapinski promote a Nazi-style "final solution" for people who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: Slapinski said on one of his social media accounts that his words about unvaccinated Canadians were "meant to be satirical." The claim appeared in a post and video on Instagram on July 13, 2023, under the title…

Did President Joe Biden announce that the "US dollar will now become cryptocurrency"? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to back that claim. While the president did issue an executive order (EO) on March 9, 2022, on "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets," it called on government agencies to look at the risks and benefits of digital currencies. Additionally,…

Does a National Geographic magazine cover purportedly published in December 2020 display what appears to be two adults and two children who are all white-complexioned beside a headline that reads "WHITE PEOPLE"? No, that's not true: A National Geographic representative told Lead Stories the cover image in this tweet has been "completely fabricated." The actual December 2020 cover on the…

Did Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte try to "seize over 3000 farms" to "free land for immigrants" during the unsuccessful negotiations over immigration shortly before the government's collapse in July 2023? No, that's not true: The claim was first made on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News a year before Rutte conceded that the members of his coalition couldn't reach…

Did the U.S. government approve the sale of "lab-grown" meat "without any labeling"? No, that's not true: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on June 14, 2023, that it gave label approval to GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods; companies that produce chicken in a laboratory "grown directly from real animal cells." Their labels will say "cell-cultivated chicken." The claim…

Is a "WEF agent" revealing a plan to exclude "less desirable" people from digital currency that will take over the world? No, that's not true: The man in the first clip in the video is a renowned Cornell University professor who was speaking at a World Economic Forum event but he is not an "agent" of the organization. He was…

Did a large plume of smoky air from Canada, which spread poor air quality conditions to many places in the U.S. in late June 2023, originate from gold and lithium mining operations in Sakami, Quebec, and not from forest fires? No, that's not true: There were many large and well-documented forest fires burning in the region near Sakami in northern…

Does Amazon's Alexa speaker say World War III will start in November 2023 when "Russia launches an attack against Germany"? No, that's not true: Amazon told Lead Stories that their AI system does not give that Alexa response to a question about when World War III would start. The claim appeared in a video published on Facebook on July 3,…

Did the World Economic Forum announce in early July 2023 that it will ban fashion, making people exclusively wear uniforms by 2030? No, that's not true: The claim came into being as an exaggerated extrapolation of a 2019 report that wasn't even produced by the World Economic Forum as an organization. The story appeared in an article published by The…

Did the Italian government offer Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg the Colosseum as a location for their fight? No, that's not true: A spokesperson of the Italian Ministry of Culture told Lead Stories that no related paperwork existed to substantiate that claim. The article that started the rumor about the supposed location of the fight was updated to include a…

Did Hamish Harding, an aviation businessman and aircraft pilot who died in the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster, tweet on June 17, 2023, that the Biden family tried to hire his aviation company for human smuggling? No, that's not true: No credible evidence exists that Harding ever published any such tweet, and his company tells Lead Stories this claim is false.…

Did Bill Gates hatch a convoluted plan to create a demand for anti-malaria drugs he funded by also funding malaria-fighting programs while developing a means to introduce malaria to the United States through genetically modified mosquitoes? No, that's not true: Genetically modified male mosquitoes being tested in the U.S. - the type that don't spread malaria and also don't bite…