Deep State

Did Elon Musk and Donald Trump team up to conduct a cryptocurrency scam that would violate election laws, as claimed in a post on X? No, that's not true: Footage from the 2024 Tesla shareholder's meeting, streamed live, was altered with a fake AI-generated voice and facial synchronizing animation. Musk's original presentation had no mention of "crypto", the altered video…

Is a picture of Air Force Two without a tail number proof that the photo was digitally manipulated? No, that's not true: A spokesperson from the Air Force's 89th Airlift Wing, which maintains and flies aircraft for government leaders, told Lead Stories that planes normally used for Air Force One and Two are being cleared of tail numbers for security…

Did the Toronto Star, BBC and other major media cover a scandal involving Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh that supposedly "erupted" after he left his microphone on while on TV? No, that's not true: Searches for coverage of this supposed money-making scandal on these news sites led to no results. The post on X that said this linked to a fake…

Did a Jewish family hire Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot former President Donald Trump? Or was Crooks trained to shoot by the CEO of BlackRock Security or by a rabbi? Has footage been leaked showing Crooks and the BlackRock CEO together carrying a gun? No, none of these claims are true: Using an AI-detection tool, Lead Stories found that the…

Did President Joe Biden grow mysteriously taller after spending time away from the public eye recovering from COVID-19? No, that's not true: The video footage used by people claiming this on social media shows Biden from a lower level, which gives an illusion of greater height relative to the people and architecture behind him. Different camera angles of the same…

Is an online video a real campaign ad using Kamala Harris' voice? No, that's not true: The audio used in the deepfake video is AI-generated, and the video's creator labeled it as a parody from the very start when he posted it on his social media account in July 2024. Despite being clearly labeled as a parody, many, including X…

Was a hydrothermal explosion on July 23, 2024, at Yellowstone National Park's Biscuit Basin considered "unusual" by experts, as a post on X claimed? No, that's not true: Officials with the U.S. Geological Service said the "small hydrothermal explosion" was considered "normal." The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory and Yellowstone National Park issued a joint statement stating that monitoring data showed "no…

Did all rivers on Earth "commence" in the spring of 2399 B.C.? No, that's not true: The birth of the oldest rivers predates this point in time by millions of years, according to the consensus of earth science. A U.S. Geological Survey scientist confirmed that to Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on Facebook on June…

Did authentic social media posts offer genuine concern over a missing teen named Kaniesa Perez? No, that's not true: The posts exploit a real missing teen story and falsely say that Kaniesa Perez went missing on the same day from Dover, Pennsylvania, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, among other locations more than a thousand miles apart. In reality, the teen went…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin say at a "military press conference in Russia" that the U.S. was planning to launch a second pandemic "aimed at disrupting the 2024 election" domestically? No, that's not true: Neither a viral AI-generated article making the claim nor earlier pieces speculating about it offered any proof that Putin actually said that. Lead Stories searched both…