Business

Did The Atlantic magazine publish an article titled, "At this weekend's Pride parade a man exposed his genitals to my 6 year old. She was horrified. Am I raising a bigot?"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the magazine told us that the article was "not a real article." There is no evidence on The Atlantic's website or on…

Did Al Jazeera media network publish a video reporting that Ukrainian social media users accused the passengers of the OceanGate Titan submersible of spending too much money on the trip when that money could have been used to support Ukraine? No, that's not true: The video was falsely attributed to Al Jazeera, according to Al Jazeera itself. Other major news…

Did Starbucks cancel Pride Month in its retail locations? No, that's not true: There is nothing to suggest that Starbucks, as a company, has canceled Pride Month. Starbucks has historically shown support for the LGBTQ community and has been known to actively participate in Pride Month celebrations. However, there is evidence that a tiny percentage of the company's more than…

Do TLOPA™ Ultra Eye Therapy Drops cure cataracts, presbyopia, glaucoma and other eye conditions? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that these eye drops cure any eye issues. It is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Vuity are the only eye drops that can treat presbyopia. Glaucoma and cataracts require surgery to restore eyes to…

Do flaws in a mock-up of a purported Hunter Biden message to a Chinese businessman prove it is not authentic? No, that's not true: Although Lead Stories can't vouch for its overall validity, the details of the message accurately reflect a whistleblower interview by the House Ways And Means Committee on May 26, 2023, by Gary Shapley, a supervisory special…

Is a story about a restaurant banning these pictured veterans to establish a "safe space" authentic? No, that's not true: The article uses completely fabricated details and is illustrated with an assortment of photographs taken from various real stories that are not related to the claims in the article. The claim appeared as an article (archived here) where it was…

Did comedian Dave Chapelle promote an unnamed "health allowance" spending card program that is only available for a limited time? No, that's not true: The voice narrating this ad is not Dave Chapelle. He did not promote this program. The video clip of Chapelle over which fake audio was laid in this fake promo came from a May 7, 2021,…

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…

Is Shahzada Dawood, one of five people who went missing on June 18, 2023, when the submersible Titan vanished on its way to the Titanic wreckage, the vice chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF)? No, that's not true: The Pakistani businessman is many things but he's not in a leadership role at the WEF. However, Dawood is the vice…

Did a man sue McDonald's "for still being depressed after eating a Happy Meal"? No, that's not true: This claim is from a website that has a disclaimer saying all of its content is "fiction ... and shouldn't be taken as real." Google News has no credible reports from reliable media outlets on this claim. The claim appeared on Instagram…

Were "30 tons of stolen ammonia nitrate ... taken to Canada to start" the wildfires that began burning in Quebec in May 2023 and blanketed the northeastern United States in early June 2023? No, that's not true: There is no credible information or evidence to support the assertion that, first, 30 tons of ammonium nitrate were stolen; and second, if…

Is the federal government launching a new program that will allow officials to control individuals' bank accounts, and have officials of Visa and Mastercard warned about such a program? No, that's not true: The Federal Reserve is simply launching a real-time payment (RTP) system that does not aim to intrude on bank customers' accounts, according to a spokesperson. The claim…

Did the Academy of Country Music (ACM) cancel Garth Brooks' Lifetime Achievement Award? No, that's not true: This article was written by a self-described satirical website that tries to troll people with their articles. No corporate statement or credible reporting supports the claim. The claim appeared in an article published by The Dunning-Kruger Times on June 18, 2023, titled "Academy…

Did a child yell, "Shut the fuck up!" while President Joe Biden was speaking at an event? No, that's not true: The shouting child's voice was edited into this footage of Biden speaking at a Take Your Child To Work Day event at the White House on April 27, 2023. The original C-SPAN footage of the event does not have…

Would the Internal Revenue Service receive over 66 percent of a $1.28 billion lottery prize if someone wins it? No, that's not true: The claim significantly overestimated federal tax payments because it did not consider that the lump sum payment is almost always less than the advertised value since it's determined by how much cash the entity selling lottery tickets…

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…

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…

Was the wife of a former Burisma co-owner found dead after she had offered to disclose the firm's secrets she had accessed as an accountant? No, that's not true: According to her attorney, the woman is alive and well as of June 19, 2023, and she didn't work as an accountant for the company in question. The story originated from…

Did Elon Musk launch an AI cryptocurrency trading platform called Bitsoft 360 AI? No, that's not true: This video of Musk was taken from a guest appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast on September 7, 2018, and its transcript shows Musk never said, "I launched an AI cryptocurrency trading platform called Bitsoft 360." The fabricated audio has been added to…

Did Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates suggest that "3 billion people need to die"? No, that's not true: The claim on social media recycles unsupported speculations from 2019 based on a distorted quote taken out of context. The story reappeared in a post on Instagram on June 9, 2023. The caption said: Does Bill Gates really want to eliminate…