Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say children should be raised by the state? No, that's not true. The fake quote originated on a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them. Articles from the site are frequently copied by foreign-run fake news websites.…

Is the video of a Minneapolis police officer pinning down George Floyd before Floyd died a "false flag" because the police car license plate that says "POLICE" is fake? No, that's not true. The video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin putting his knee into Floyd's neck before he died shows a police car with the license plate "POLICE" --…

Did President Donald Trump sign an executive order making flag-burning a hate crime? No, he did not. The story about the presidential order originated as satire on a website that publishes fake stories designed to trick and embarrass conservatives who believe and share them. There was no such order signing. The spoof originated as an article (archived here) where it…

Does the little girl in a viral photo asking for prayers have coronavirus? No, that's not true. A photograph of a little girl with a tube in her nose holding a sign asking for prayers with the caption that she has coronavirus is fake -- it has been photoshopped and she is actually celebrating her last day of chemotherapy and…

Does a gruesome photograph featuring rows of scorched bodies serve as evidence that Boko Haram militants in Nigeria massacred hundreds of Christians? No, that's not true: While the militant Islamic group operating out of Nigeria is guilty of plenty of atrocities, this image has nothing to do with Boko Haram, Muslims or religion in general. The hard-to-look-at photograph actually depicts…

Did President Trump order the military prison at Guantanamo Bay to prepare for "high level" prisoners? No, that's not true: The original publisher of the story posted in 2018 determined it was an "unreliable conspiracy" theory and retracted it. In the two years after the claim was first made, there have no arrests of American politicians as was predicted. The…

Does Joe Biden plan to move Social Security eligibility age to 75? No, that's not true: This story was originally published as satire by a network that trolls conservatives with false claims about liberals and Democrats. The content is often stolen by other websites and republished without satire-labeling as click bait. There is no plan by Biden, the Democrats' presumptive…

Did Facebook's independent fact checkers rate an image of the Bill of Rights as "False Information"? No, that's not true: an image circulating on social media that appears to show a fact checking overlay on the Bill of Rights is a crude forgery. We contacted several of the fact checkers Facebook is working with and none of them (including ourselves)…

Did Dr. Anthony Fauci say "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask?" Yes, but he said it in early March 2020, and much had changed by May. Federal health experts, including Dr. Fauci began recommending that Americans wear a mask in public on April 3, 2020. The video of Fauci's March 8, 2020, CBS interview was posted…

Was cattleman Cliven Bundy unfairly forced off his own land by federal agents in 2014, and then vindicated in court because he was justified in his actions? No, that is not true. Bundy owed the government more than $1 million for 21 years of grazing his herds on land belonging to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Then Bundy and…

Is a man wearing a MAGA-style red hat that reads "Make Whites Great Again" in a photo the Minneapolis police officer who had his knee on George Floyd's neck as Floyd died? No, that's not true: The photo shared widely on social media is of a notorious internet troll who has fooled major news outlets on several instances in recent…

Did actor Vin Diesel die in a backyard stunt fail? No, that's not true: This is a click-bait death hoax that leads anyone who clicks on the link to a porn site. Diesel is not dead. The death claim appeared in a post, which we will not link to here, shared on Facebook under the title "H0LLYW00D ACT0R, professionaIIy known…

Is the COVID-19 death rate a mere '0.1%'? No, that's not true: The novel coronavirus death rate is about 1.3 percent, according to the most recent estimate by University of Washington researchers. It is much deadlier than the seasonal flu, which does have a 0.1 percent death rate, those researchers said. The claim appeared in a meme shared on Facebook…

Is Donald Trump really a suspect in the murder of a personal assistant in 2000, while he was still a New York-based real estate mogul? No, that's not true: the #JusticeForCarolyn tweet that claims Trump "strangled her because he'd gotten her pregnant and was threatening to tell the press" was posted by a pardody account as a response to the…

Did Bill Gates really suggest eliminating about 10 to 15 percent of the global human population using vaccines during a TED talk in 2010? No, that's not true: Gates' remark was about possible strategies to slow down population growth in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In the larger context of his talk Gates is saying this strategy does not help…

Is it against the law for a business to require people to wear masks, do masks make you sick, and is COVID-19 no more deadly than the flu? No, none of that is true: The claims of a woman ranting outside a grocery store about the illegality of mandatory mask rules, the health risks associated with wearing a mask, and…

Were the remains of a Nazi officer discovered inside a 100-year-old giant catfish? No, that's not true: Although the photo of the giant catfish and the fisherman is real, the details of this story are all fabricated. The name of the fisherman, the size of the fish, the river, the country, the bones, the Nazi medal ... all made up.…

Did the Los Angeles County Director of Public Health -- a woman tasked with responding to COVID-19 and promoting good health -- actually appear unhealthy in a photo from a news briefing? No, that's not true: A photograph of Barbara Ferrer was digitally-altered to drain her of all color and make her look ill. The altered image originated on social…

Did President Trump tweet on Memorial Day weekend that "American is now GREAT do to my sacrifices," and that "only losers and haters don't see that"? No, this is not true. A search through the president's Twitter timeline, as well as archives of his live and deleted tweets, reveals that no such tweet was made by Trump. The claim surfaced…

Was Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer caught on camera violating mask and social-distancing and rules on on Mackinaw Island in May 2020? No, that's not true: The photo of the Democratic governor talking with two men was published in a 2018 news story -- nearly a year and a half before she imposed rules for Michigan residents to protect against the…