Did "an entire unnamed mountain" collapse into itself near Casper, Wyoming at the end of 2025 and were emergency crews from several states mobilizing? No, that's not true: A viral post and image making that claim originated on a satirical Facebook page. Earlier there was a (much smaller) collapse in Wyoming's Teton mountains but that happened over 250 miles from…
Are videos of New York Police officers arresting or threatening to arrest ICE agents on the streets and in the subways of New York real? No, that's not true: A series of videos portraying confrontations between NYPD and ICE officers were created by OpenAI's SORA artificial intelligence app. Many of them can be traced to one content creator who posted…
Did CNBC correspondent Megan Cassella tell President Trump "Sir, you are the president, not God" during a press briefing? There is no evidence for that: No news articles make any mention of the quote and neither does CNBC's own website. According to a post from Cassella on X she has been on maternity leave since September 19, 2025. The viral…
Is a video that shows a retired soldier crying in court after a judge drops charges of sleeping in a park real? No, that's not true: The video was created by a social media account that "features realistic courtroom dramas and storytelling visualizations created with advanced AI technology." The account states that all of their cases and characters are fictionalized…
Is a video claiming that "all of our food is 3D-printed" or contains bioengineered ingredients to be taken seriously? No, that's not true: A TikTok video sent out a confusing message conflating bioengineered food and 3D-printed foods. Both are real things but they don't mean the same thing. The TikTok creator who made the claims as she reviewed food products…
Is a video of workers installing "incredible white cherry blossom epoxy flooring" in a home real? No, that's not true: The 12-second time-lapse clip showing five workers pouring liquid epoxy over a real tree branch to create a transparent floor is a "solely digital" representation of "creativity and innovation, not physical products," according to the website linked to the video.…
Does a video show two big trucks hauling UFOs or bunkers over a bridge? No, that's not true: The convoy is carrying large industrial air-cooled heat exchangers, also called cooling fans. These induced draft heat exchangers are marked with a Fin-Fan logo, indicating they were manufactured by Hudson Products Corporation of Beasley, Texas. Fans like these may be used in…
Is a viral video of a purple-haired woman being sentenced to six months in jail and a $10,000 fine for attacking a law enforcement officer with a metal trash can during an anti-ICE protest real? No, that's not true: The original version of the video on TikTok included a disclaimer saying that the clip was AI-generated media. No media organizations…
Was "Irish Christian teacher Enoch Burke" sentenced to life in prison for transphobia and "refusing to use a transgender student's pronouns"? No, that's not true: The sentencing judge explicitly stated that the decision is about the repeated contempt of court for repeatedly ignoring an order to not trespas on school property. The same judge said that Burke "does not have…
Did the man charged with planting pipe bombs found near the Republican and Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, sue the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security over illegal immigration? No, that's not true: Legal disputes referenced in a Daily Wire article making that claim confused suspect Brian Cole Jr. with his father Brian Cole Sr. It…
Did Norway launch an autonomous ship, the BlueHarvester, which can clean plastic from the ocean and then turn that plastic into fuel it uses to power itself? No, that's not true: Images of the BlueHarvester are AI-generated. A search of the Norwegian Maritime Authority database for BlueHarvester finds there is no record of a vessel by this name. The description…
Is the Securities and Exchange Commission investigating 10 Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, for fraud and insider trading? No, that's not true: There is no evidence the SEC is investigating any of the 10 people whose images are included in the post. The claim originated from a satirical Facebook page that carried a satire disclaimer. The owner of the…
Did the FBI name Bryan Cole of Fairfax, Virginia, as the suspect in the January 6 pipebomb case in Washington, D.C.? No, that's not true: The suspect named by the FBI on December 4, 2025, is Brian J. Cole, age 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, who is identified as Black in court records in several Virginia traffic cases. An X post…
Is a video of an Iraqi woman saying in Swedish that she used the Swedish welfare system "to the max" real? Yes, it is: Tara Sabah Mohammed Saleh said she was being sarcastic during a TikTok Live stream in reaction to racist social media comments that told her "to go home." A Swedish news report called her a pro-Palestinian activist…
Did a real Domino's delivery rider in Japan carry a pepperoni pizza in an insulated backpack to the top of Mount Fuji? No, that's not true: An AI-generated photo and story circulating on social media are not real, but they are based on something that did happen and went viral with real photos. Umanami Futoshi is a Japanese office worker…
Was a Catholic nun fatally stabbed in Croatia by an "unnamed migrant man" in late November 2025? No, that's not true: Sister Marija Tatjana Zrno is alive. Police concluded she stabbed herself and they were investigating her for filing a false crime report. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on December 1, 2025. It read:…
Did the U.S. Coast Guard report that drugs were found on just 21% of the suspected drug-trafficking vessels stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard in the 13 months before airstrikes, while the rest -- 79% -- did nothing wrong? No, that's not true: Social media posts making the 21% claim reversed the numbers shared by Sen. Rand Paul, who was…
Does a video show a graveyard of green electric scooters that ran out of battery life and were abandoned because it is too expensive to replace them? No, that's not true: This video is real, but the reason the electric scooters were taken out of service had nothing to do with the batteries. Slowing demand for the bikes led the…
Did CNN refuse to talk about a viral video showing missile strikes on a "runner" near a church during the Obama administration? No, that's not true: The footage is from the video game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", which was released in 2007, well before Obama became President in 2009. CNN did write about the game at the time.…
Are videos showing a prisoner jumping through a drop ceiling to escape a courtroom after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison real? No, that's not true: These videos were generated by an artificial intelligence tool. The videos are labeled as "AI-generated media" on the TikTok channel where they were first shared. Glitches and movements that defy physical realities…
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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