Did Pope Francis compare Christians to a fungus during an address in Morocco? No, that's not true: The speech quoted in misleading stories included the pope quoting a biblical passage in which Jesus responds to a question about the nature of the Kingdom of God by saying "It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three…
Did firefighters in Northern California suffer neurological damage after contact with 5G cell towers? No, despite claims in several trending reports there is no "new university study" or other scientific evidence to support the claim that installation of the latest evolution of mobile communication towers -- known as 5G -- has caused such harm. An indepth look at the sourcing…
Did Russian President Vladimir Putin ban all Microsoft products from Russia? No, that's not true: a 2016 article was reposted to Facebook by website that has a reputation for making up unsubstantiated claims in its headlines that are not backed by the content of the articles it links to. The story originated from an article (archived here) on NewsPunch where…
Did an unnamed woman admit she was paid to frame Bill Cosby with rape? No, that's not true: a South African website copied an old conspiracy article from NewsPunch/YourNewsWire but the theory it comes up with does not make sense from a timing perspective. It also relies on unnamed sources that can't be verified. The story recently went viral again…
Did Pope Francis say a world government must rule the U.S. for their own good? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a website that attracts clicks and visitors by taking existing news reports out of context and adding an incendiary headline to it, often containing made up facts that are not found in the sources the…
Was NFL lawyer Dan Goodes found dead after claiming the Super Bowl is rigged? No, that's not true: an old copy of a fake story published in 2018 went viral again after being posted to several large Facebook groups and pages in 2019 but it is still not true. The copy of the story was an article published on Fabruary…
A Macedonian military man appears to be one of the driving forces behind a network of fake news websites that reached millions of people with articles often inciting hatred against muslims and migrants. Together with friends and family he has been spreading his messages via Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes under their own names, sometimes using fake identities. A look behind…
Did Angela Merkel say states must give up sovereignty to the "New World Order"? No, that's not true: while Merkel did call on states to surrender some sovereignty she did not mention a "New World Order" and she stressed the importance of parliamentary approval for this process. The article making the claim also contained several other doctored or made up…
Did "Belgian patriots" rise up and overthrow the Belgian Government for signing the UN Global Compact on Migration? No, that's not true. The Belgian cabinet did fall and it was over support for the UN pact but there was no "uprising" (just a demonstration of about 5,500 people) and most people marching in it would be offended to be described…
Was the "EU Army" deployed to the streets of Paris to "crush" the "French Revolution" this weekend? No, that's not true: the claim came from a notoriously unreliable website that tries to make money by luring in people with explosive headlines that often misrepresent what actually happened in order to earn money with advertising. It is not true. The story…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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