Fact Check

Did Fox News broadcast a segment about a "revolutionary device that's healing the world" named "Tesla Ionic Care" and "backed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump"? No, that's not true: The TV channel denied that. Three AI detectors showed that the viral video with the Fox News logo contained AI-generated content. The claim appeared in a post…

Did President Donald Trump cancel taxes on all overtime starting Monday, March 31, 2025? No, that's not true: The video used in a social media post making the claim is from a September 12, 2024, campaign rally when Trump vowed to make overtime pay exempt from federal taxes if he were elected. As of March 25, 2025, congressional Republicans were…

Did the U.S. State Department deny Dr. Anthony Fauci's passport renewal application in March 2025? No, that's not true: The original source of that claim about the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was an article on a website that describes its own content as "fiction" and "satire." The article attributed quotations to two fictional…

Did hundreds of bears block vehicle traffic into Yellowstone Park in March of 2025 by sitting, standing and lying down on the entry road, as was claimed on social media? No, that's not true: As of this writing, most Yellowstone Park roads were still closed for winter. The regional press that cover the park have not written about what would…

Did a federal judge named Howard Gates have a verbal battles with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2025, culminating in his dramatic courtroom arrest at her behest? No, that's not true: the video, and others like it, were no more than fan fiction and did not describe real events. Lead Stories found no record of a federal judge named…

Does the mugshot of a weeping teenager show identify someone arrested in connection with one of the March, 2025 attacks by vandals on Tesla dealerships and Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: the mugshot was published nine years earlier. It appeared in 2016 reports about the arrest of Anthony J. Zingale, of Grafton, WI, for alleged sexual assault of a…

Does a viral post prove that 84% of electronic devices spotted at the joint Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally in Colorado can be definitively linked to Kamala Harris campaign events and protests for other causes? No, that's not true: The post didn't offer a replicable analysis of the data. Two organizations mentioned in it among the supposed sources said…

Are two homicide suspects named Seth Chancey and Madison Smith on the run for the killing of 10-month-old Derrick Taylor as of March 24, 2025? No, that's not true: The posts are fake, part of a bait-and-switch scam aimed at luring social media users to ad posts designed to harvest personal and financial information. These posts use mugshots taken from…

Are two homicide suspects named Shaila Bradshaw and Tyler Chapman on the run for the killing of 8-month-old Marquel Smith as of March 24, 2025? No, that's not true: The posts are fake, part of a bait-and-switch scam aimed at luring social media users to ads designed to harvest personal and financial information. These posts use mugshots taken from posts…

Was former U.S. president Barack Obama caught "laundering money through the Cayman Islands" for private gain in March 2025, as a social media post claims? No, that's not true: The viral post misrepresented the words of a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast. That person was talking about U.S. government funding of a "Cuban Twitter", not about Obama's direct involvement…

Did basketball coach Dawn Staley reject a $10 million donation from Elon Musk in March 2025? No, that's not true: Neither Musk nor Staley made any public statement about any donation. An AI detector concluded that the text of the story, including bogus quotes, was high likely to have been generated using AI. The story originated in a March 23,…

Did a video shared in March 2025 authentically show a teacher ordering a student to leave her classroom because he was wearing a MAGA hat? No, that's not true: the video in question was no more than a sketch. The TikTok account that posted it has a history of publishing short skits featuring the same actors shown in the fake…

Does a video clip authentically show DOGE employees breaking into government offices, with one of them saying "ChatGPT could do all your jobs"? No, that's not true: The viral clip was taken from a video from Youtube channel that publishes scripted prank videos. The title of the original video called it a "fake DOGE prank". The clip was uploaded in…

Is "leaked" audio of Vice-President J.D. Vance in which he complains about Elon Musk authentic? No, that's not true: Several AI detection tools and Vance's Communications director both say the audio is fake. The TikTok video where the audio seems to have originated from misspelled Vance's name as "Vence". The oldest copy of the viral audio appears to be this…

Does this photo show a real person described as a "liberal" in some social media posts vandalizing a Cybertruck? No, that's not true: The picture of the half-naked person dressed in weird rainbow colored clothes is ai generated. It originated from an account on X that says it publishes "trustworthy fake news & memes". The image appeared in a post…

Did President Trump unveil a framed copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper hung up behind curtains in the Oval Office to Laura Ingram during a tour? No, that's not true: The footage was digitally manipulated to replace the Declaration of Independence that can be seen in the original video. The edit is visible with the naked eye as the document appears…

Does a photo of a man holding an AR-15 rifle show a suspect in the mass shooting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on March 21, 2025? No, that's not true: Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story told reporters the man was interviewed and ruled out as a shooting suspect. The shell casings recovered at the crime scene by investigators were…

Does a viral video showing wedding scenes where various little girls are being married to older men authentically show Muslim child marriages, as social media posts are claiming? No, that's not true: The viral footage originated on an Instagram account that posts AI generated videos. Several detection tools found evidence the video was generated using artificial intelligence. The video has…

Did King Charles III give official notice that he has revoked U.S. independence, effective immediately, will reign as monarch and that "The nincompoop you've elected as President will go to gaol", as social media posts claim? No, that's not true: There was no official statement to that effect from the British monarch. No such statement appeared on Buckingham Palace social…

Did actor James Woods post an authentic copy of a tweet by Congresswoman Maxine Waters in which she misspelled impeach as "inpeach" and confused a urine test with an IQ test, supposedly responding to President Donald Trump calling her "Low IQ Maxine"? No, that's not true: Woods posted to his X account a copy of a fake tweet that was…