Georgia

Did a flagger working for "NPL Pipeline Company in the Chicago suburbs" die after being given a bottle of water "suspected" of being "laced with fentanyl"? No, that's not true: NPL told Lead Stories that the report is "entirely false." The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) published on July 20, 2023, under the title "Stay safe…

Are Masonic Lodges injecting children with "'free child identification chips' to 'help combat abduction,'" also collecting those children's DNA? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence or reliable information to support such a claim. Multiple Masons organizations across the United States said their child-identification programs don't put tracking chips in children and any DNA information is retained by…

Does the idea that 1.4 percent of Americans owned slaves in 1860 represent the true extent of slavery at that time? No, that's not true: That statistic isn't meaningful. By 1860, slave ownership was concentrated in the southern U.S., making only the population in those states relevant to the issue of slave ownership. The population of the southern U.S. also…

Does a video show "armed military escorting" former President Donald Trump during a June 10, 2023, visit to a Waffle House in Columbus, Georgia, and does this escort prove that Trump is still the president of the United States? No, that's not true: By law, the U.S. Secret Service, not the military, protects former presidents. A spokesperson for Fort Moore,…

Did President Joe Biden withhold 1,850 boxes of classified documents from his time as vice president between 2009 and 2017? No, that's not true: Though the University of Delaware Library has stated that it holds over 1,850 boxes of Biden's "archival records," these documents are from the president's decadeslong career as a Delaware senator. Senatorial papers, in general, are not…

Did security footage capture the moment when an "angry" warehouse robot attacked a human worker? No, that's not true: This is a short science fiction film made by a film company in Georgia with CGI. The company, Sozo Bear Films, emailed Lead Stories, confirming that this footage is not real and was created with visual effects. The claim appeared on…

Did a public high school in Georgia implement a "business model" assignment in which students had to devise ways of "raising and eating human babies to solve the world hunger problem?" No, that's not true: At two points in a video interview shared to social media, it was stated that the supposed business model was meant as a high school…

Does a clip shared on social media show Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell of California breaking into tears as a result of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments? No, that's not true: The video's title is misleading, and the recording does not contain such an episode. The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on April 21, 2023. It said: Watch…

Did several videos in countries around the world accurately show that tiny sharp nails or pins were in medicine capsules sealed in tamper-evident blister packs? No, that's not true: In February 2021 several videos circulated on the internet showing adulterated medicine capsules. The medicines pictured, from different manufacturers, have limited distribution in several different countries. Aside from the suspicious videos…

Nicholas Muller is a fact checker in Russian and Spanish for Lead Stories. He has been covering China's global Belt and Road initiatives, climate, and migration stories in Asia, and also has several years reporting from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Central Asia. He has a double MA degree in Chinese foreign policy and European Affairs from Sciences Po-Paris and Fudan…