Sweden

Is it true that nobody has actually died from COVID-19 across Europe, and that officials there have identified no antibodies specific to the disease? Also, is it true that there is no pandemic, but merely an "infection"? No, none of this is true, according to published research and the European equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…

Did NBC News report that all Americans would have microchip implants by the end of 2020, and that these Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags will allow the U.S. government to track and identify them instantly? No, that's not true. This claim apparently stems from a real NBC report in 2007 that speculated about tech advances over the next decade. A…

Are social distancing guidelines and the COVID-19 pandemic part of a government plot to track and control citizens? No, that's not true: Osteopath Rashid Buttar, a practitioner who has been sued for fraud, made the claim in a video rant that also included other false claims. There is no evidence to support Dr. Buttar's claim that the government wants Americans…

Do photos show mass microchipping has begun in Sweden? No, that's not true: Only a few thousand Swedes have had the rice- grain-sized chips implanted under the skin of their hand over the past several years, hardly a "mass microchipping" of Sweden's population of more than 10 million people. Some of the photo examples used in an article making the…

Do 5G waves penetrate red blood cells in the lungs, making them easy prey for COVID-19 to enter and cause oxygen starvation? No, that's not true: The main study used to support the claim is about Wi-Fi, not 5G signals. Scientists have proven that 5G broadband can't enter the body because skin protects the internal organs, and engineering experts point…

Has climate youth activist Greta Thunberg been lying about her age? No, that's not true: Greta is not actually 27 years old. The claim was first published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire. Foreign-run fake news websites frequently copy articles from the site. The…

Did Muslim shoppers once more attack a Christmas tree in a shopping mall? No, that's not true: every Christmas season the same video clip from Egypt resurfaces with the same or similar captions that claim "Muslims" or "refugees" are attacking or destroying the tree somewhere in Europe or the United States. Just like the tree itself, pointing out that the…

Did the Church of Sweden announce climate activist Greta Thunberg is the "successor" of Jesus Christ? No, that's not true: a single tweet by a local pastor in December 2018 made that controversial claim but he later apologized for it. The Church of Sweden (to which over half of Swedes belong) has issued no official statement making this claim at…

Is Luisa Neubauer the "supervisor" or "handler" of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg? And does Neubauer's relationship with anti-poverty campaign organization One.org prove Thunberg is part of some "elite" plot? No, that's not true: Neubauer is not Thunberg's handler or supervisor so the limited involvement Neubauer has with one.org is completely beside the point in this context. The claim about…

Did Norway deport Muslims causing the country's crime rate to drop 31 percent? No, that's not true: Norway did increase deportation of immigrants who were sentenced to prison, but Muslims were not targeted and the largest number deported were from eastern European countries. The crime rate in Norway -- which was already low compared to the United States -- has…