Terrorism

Did Twitter remove "over 44,000 Twitter pages involved with child sexual exploitation -- in just India alone" since Elon Musk took over the company? No, that's not true: Such large numbers came from global totals, not from India alone. Also, while the implication in the post is that such numbers began with Musk's takeover of Twitter, available information shows it…

Did an American doctor admit on video that he created the HIV and AIDS viruses in a U.S. military medical laboratory, Fort Detrick, so that they could be used as biological weapons for depopulating the world? No, that's not true: Dr. Robert Gallo, the doctor featured in the video, makes no such admission in the footage, and told Lead Stories…

Did Mel Gibson say he wants to "expose the truth about the corrupted elites" on his official Telegram account? No, that's not true: "It's fake," Gibson's representative told Lead Stories about a purported quote from the actor. Gibson does not have a Telegram account, the representative said. The claim appeared on Facebook on December 13, 2022. It opened: Mel Gibson…

Does a trident superimposed on the gold and blue Ukrainian flag represent membership in, or support for, the Nazi political movement? No, that's not true: The trident is the national symbol of Ukraine that is often added to the country's flag. The claim appeared in an Instagram post from November 25, 2022, under the title "Here I am driving to…

Will U.S. dollars printed before 2021 no longer be accepted as legal tender as of January 2023? No, that's not true: A senior spokesperson for the U.S. Treasury Department told Lead Stories that the claim is false. Under current U.S. monetary policy, he said, all bills in circulation since 1914 remain legal tender. The claim appeared in a November 5,…

Was David Icke labeled a "level three terrorist" in an email he received from the Dutch government? No, that's not true: Dutch immigration authorities wrote Icke, a British conspiracy theorist and former soccer player, to inform him that he is banned for two years from traveling into countries that make up the European Union's border-free Schengen Area. The letter does…

Was a Ukraine ID card in the name of "Semen Hydenko" (or Samuyil Hydenko) found at the scene of the October 8, 2022, explosion on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia? No, that's not true: The spoof ID card shown in online messages has the face of American comedian Sam Hyde on it. In a bizarre internet in-joke, Hyde is…

Was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene raided by the Department of Justice on August 24, 2022? No, that's not true: Greene's house was "swatted," with someone falsely reporting that there was a crime committed at her home. However, there is no publicly available evidence that the DOJ raided her home. The claim appeared in a Truth Social post published on August…

Does a video of Sen. Ted Cruz questioning current FBI Director Christopher Wray or former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe expose either man in a lie about the circumstances surrounding the August 8, 2022, search of Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of former President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The video of Cruz is spliced together from separate congressional hearings…

Does a video show "Rep. John Haller" of Pennsylvania reading through the "HR 8791 -- the Homeland Terrorism Preparedness Bill" and interrupting his reading by repeatedly saying material is "classified"? No, that's not true: There was no Rep. John Haller representing Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District in 2007 when the video originally appeared. And there was no HR 8791 during that…