Election

Did The Economic Times article that declared Kamala Harris won the 2024 election cite reports that concluded voting systems were rigged for Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The reports referred to by The Economic Times all stop short of declaring the election was stolen. Instead, those writers whom The Economic Times cited said there are questions about software and…

Is the name of a suspect in the Graz shooting Samuel Haider? No, that's not true: A viral post recycled the meme in circulation since 2015 that casts the comedian Sam Hyde as an attacker after mass shootings in the U.S. or abroad. No credible media organization reported that anyone named "Samuel Haider" was connected to the events in Graz.…

Did President Trump announce in a video that the production of Tesla cars would be banned in the United States? No, that's not true:The audio in the viral video, in which Trump could also be heard calling Elon Musk a "snake", was generated using AI according to a detection tool. It originated on an Instagram account with "AI" in its…

Was U.S. President Donald Trump's account on X blocked again in the aftermath of the public feud with the platform's owner Elon Musk on June 5, 2025? No, that's not true: The account was still active, as of this writing. The screenshot that resurfaced on social media showed what Trump's account looked like in 2021 - after he had been…

Was the latest book by Kamala Harris yanked from the shelves after it was found to be 30% plagiarized? No, that's not true: The former vice president has authored three books as of June 2025, including the last two published in 2019. Each of those books is still available for purchase online and in bookstores. Her first book, which was…

On June 3, 2025 I was invited to make a statement during a public hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium organized by the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield. The hearing was titled "Enforcement of the EU Digital Rulebook and political advertising in the context of foreign interference: understanding Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and disinformation…

Did a Florida court rule that two newsrooms have to be stripped of their Pulitzer Prizes for covering the role of Russia in the 2016 election campaign? No, that's not true: The court's ruling was procedural. The judge only allowed the case to continue, denying the defendants' petition for a stay. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Did a widely-shared image of a bearded man show the individual arrested in Liverpool after a car drove into a crowd of celebrating soccer fans in May 2025? No, that's not true: Merseyside Police confirmed to Lead Stories that the photo doesn't show the man arrested in that case. That person was described as a "53-year-old white British man from…

Did an image shown to the public by U.S. President Donald Trump during a May 21, 2025 meeting with his South African counterpart in the Oval Office capture a mass burial of "white farmers" in that country? No, that's not true: The image was a screenshot of Reuters footage showing a different country. The recording captured humanitarian workers assisting with…

Was pro-Trump Cuban activist Hector Luis Valdes Cocho detained by ICE and held for possible deportation from the United States? Yes, that's true: Valdes Cocho, who was exiled from Cuba to the U.S. in 2022 because of his political activism, was initially arrested in November 2024, on state fraud and traffic charges in Florida. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)…