Death Hoax

Does a video on social media show podcaster Joe Rogan discussing the topic of rat meat supposedly in Chinese food, and how a person might find out about "how to heal the body from the toxins they feed us" in a podcast? No, that's not true: The deepfake detection platform TrueMedia.org determined with 100 percent confidence that the audio in…

Does a video show former One Direction singer Liam Payne falling to his death in Argentina? No, that's not true: The video is of another person escaping a fire. It was taken in Mexico in 2023, before Payne's death. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on October 17, 2024. The post, which included a series…

Did presidential candidate Kamala Harris lie about having a Black grandmother, because the woman she identifies in her autobiography as her grandmother died four years before Harris was born? No, that's not true: Two women -- one of whom would become Harris' grandmother -- with similar first names were born in the same district of Jamaica around the same time.…

Is the conspiracy theory that hurricanes are planned or controlled supported by Amazon's Alexa supposedly revealing the death toll and damage amount from Hurricane Milton days before the storm even made landfall? No, that's not true: An Amazon spokesperson told Lead Stories "These answers are clearly incorrect and we are working to resolve this issue". Shortly afterwards Alexa started responding,…

Did tennis star Serena Williams die following a tragic car crash in Texas in September 2024, as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: As of September 25, 2024, there was no evidence to suggest that Williams had died. The legendary athlete posted on Instagram after the post about her supposed car crash was published. No major media…

Did social media posts share the true story of the disappearance of Raymond Peterson and his wife Sophie from Livingston Parish in Louisiana? No, that's not true: The posts were part of a bait-and-switch technique commonly seen on Facebook where the content of emotionally charged posts calling for help later get replaced by a scam real-estate ad. The real names…

Are social media posts about a missing teenager named "Kaitlin Whoolery" authentic? No, that's not true: Whoolery died in April 2024, but posts about her disappearance were still being posted in September 2024. These posts about Whoolery are part of a "bait-and-switch" tactic commonly used on Facebook where heart-wrenching stories are swapped out for scams involving real estate ads after…

Is a 2024 article on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines by Dr. Young Mi Lee, an obstetrician and gynecologist in South Korea, and Daniel Broudy, an applied linguistics professor at Okinawa Christian University in Japan a valid, well-done scientific study? No, that's not true: The article -- titled "Real-Time Self-Assembly of Stereomicroscopically Visible Artificial Constructions in Incubated Specimens of mRNA Products Mainly…

Does a video posted on X authentically show New York Gov. Kathy Hochul unable to open her left eye? No, that's not true: Lead Stories traced the clip back to its original version on YouTube, which showed Hochul with both eyes open and blinking normally while recording a public service announcement for the COVID-19 vaccine. The video was digitally altered.…

Is milk chocolate "fine" to feed dogs, while dark chocolate is toxic for them? No, that's not true: A professor told Lead Stories that both kinds of chocolate are toxic for dogs. Milk chocolate has less of the toxic compound in chocolate, theobromine, than dark chocolate but it does have it. The Food and Drug Administration does not recommend feeding…