Were 10,800 U.S. children raped by illegal immigrants in 2018? Almost certainly not. The actual statistics haven't been published yet and the 10,800 number is just a very sloppy extrapolation based on data from one state that also includes non-rapes. The story went viral via an article published on January 2, 2019 titled "NCFIRE: 10,800 U.S. Children Were Raped By…

Did Angela Merkel say states must give up sovereignty to the "New World Order"? No, that's not true: while Merkel did call on states to surrender some sovereignty she did not mention a "New World Order" and she stressed the importance of parliamentary approval for this process. The article making the claim also contained several other doctored or made up…

Did "Belgian patriots" rise up and overthrow the Belgian Government for signing the UN Global Compact on Migration? No, that's not true. The Belgian cabinet did fall and it was over support for the UN pact but there was no "uprising" (just a demonstration of about 5,500 people) and most people marching in it would be offended to be described…

Was the "EU Army" deployed to the streets of Paris to "crush" the "French Revolution" this weekend? No, that's not true: the claim came from a notoriously unreliable website that tries to make money by luring in people with explosive headlines that often misrepresent what actually happened in order to earn money with advertising. It is not true. The story…

Did German chancellor Angela Merkel say that U.S. President Donald Trump has almost destroyed "The New World Order"? No, that's not true: a notoriously unreliable website misquoted Merkel based on a year-old news article. She never said it. The story originated from an article published by NewsPunch (formerly YourNewsWire) on December 7, 2018 titled "Angela Merkel: Trump Has Almost Destroyed…

Did U.S. Border Patrol agents find the body of a 6-year-old girl who was raped by 30 men near the Mexican border? No, that's not true: we contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection to inquire about the incident and they told us they never heard about it. The only sites that mention it seem to base themselves on a video…

Did Minneapolis set up a "Sharia Hotline" to report Americans criticizing Islam? No, that's not true: a website that makes a living by copy pasting real bits of news and then adding a fake headline to attract clicks has claimed that a new hotline to report hate crimes is a "sharia hotline". It is not true. The story originated from…

Did President Trump warn flu vaccinations are the greatest scam in medical history? No, that's not true: an old article from YourNewsWire (a fake news website that got fact checked so often it had to change its name) was copied by several other sites and keeps going viral (pun not intended). It was all based on an old radio interview…

YourNewsWire used to be one of the most notorious websites spreading fake news, often by using bits and pieces of real news articles from other websites to create new articles which would then get a headline and introduction that would greatly overstate or even outright lie about what was really happening. Earlier this year Poynter did a profile about the…

Did Senator Chuck Grassley "vow to imprison" anybody falsely accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? No, that's not true. Infamous fake news website YourNewsWire made the claim in a headline and then later changed "imprison" to "prosecute" but evidence of the change remains visible in the URL of the story and in an archived version (along with several partially plagiarised…