Just Because It's Trending Doesn't Mean It's True — Fact checking at the speed of likes since 2015

Did WOIO, Cleveland's Channel 19, report that "Four former staffers have accused Sherrod Brown of sexual assault" in a one-minute segment? No, that's not true: According to Hive Moderation, the voiceover of this fabricated clip is AI-generated and a search of the WOIO website shows no matching news reports. Searches of Google News and Yahoo News did not find any…

Were four U.S. Secret Service agents placed on leave after tampering with the air defense systems at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's Florida home? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service told Lead Stories, "there is zero truth to that post." The X account that posted the claim is from a website with a disclaimer stating it…

Does a viral video show defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro receiving an ovation upon his arrival in the United States in October 2026? No, that's not true: The footage predated the runoff election by roughly one month. The video showed Bolsonaro still campaigning in Brazil. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published…

Did dozens of Pennsylvania election workers say that then-Gov. Tom Wolf and then-Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar ordered them to destroy Trump ballots in the 2020 presidential election? No, that's not true: This false news story originated from a Facebook page that lists its category as "comedian" but has spread to other social media platforms without the comedy disclaimer. Lead…

Is a photo that shows Beyoncé with a shirtless Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and another photo of just the two men on an airplane real photos from the Department of Justice Epstein files? No, that's not true: Hive Moderation's AI detection tool rated one image 99.9% likely to be AI-generated and the other 99.6% likely. A search of the…

Does a real image showing blobs of material, both clear and creamy, provide information about human fertility? No, that's not true: Hive Moderation determined the image was 99.9% likely to be AI-generated, and Google's SynthID detection tool confirmed it was made with Google AI. Aside from the misspelled labels "feritle" and "non-feritle", the image does not provide additional information about…

Does a real "Maui Sunset" photo show Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Jeffrey Epstein together? No, that's not true: An online tool concluded that the image was "made or edited" using Google AI. Lead Stories found no matching reports from established news outlets and no evidence that an authentic version of the photo was publicly available. The claim appeared in…

Did President Donald Trump post to Truth Social, already declaring victory in the 2026 midterms and saying counting ballots is "wasting time"? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post. No established news outlets had reported that his account shared the message at the time of publication. The claim appeared in…

Is a punch hole in a California ballot envelope proof of election rigging in the 2026 election? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that elections in California can be rigged based on just the existence of a punch hole on a ballot envelope. The punch holes serve a dual purpose. The Ventura County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters…

Does real footage from an endoscopic camera show the junction between the esophagus and windpipe as food is swallowed? No, that's not true: The fake footage is designed to look like the view from a real medical camera in a person's throat, but it was AI-generated. Not only is the footage fake, but the anatomy is depicted incorrectly in both…

Does a viral video actually show Flávio Bolsonaro crying after his defeat in Brazil's Oct. 25, 2026, presidential election? No, that's not true: Lead Stories established that the events in the video had been recorded days before the official election results were announced and that it was posted well before the results were announced. The initial caption said that the…

Was podcaster Ethan Klein found dead in October 2026? No, that's not true: There are no reports from established news outlets that Klein has died. However, the H3 Podcast is on indefinite hiatus after his wife and business partner, Hila Klein, publicly accused him of having an affair for more than six months and said they had separated. The claim…

Did a man die while trying to take a photo with a mechanical dinosaur that trapped his head in its mouth? No, that's not true: A Facebook version of the video shows the same man extracting his head from the dinosaur's mouth without life-threatening injuries. The photo identified as the victim is actually of a different man who was shot…

Does a video show Flávio Bolsonaro with fewer votes in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election in October 2026 than in the first, proving fraud? No, that's not true: The vote count was incomplete, with about 93% of the ballots counted, and the video does not show the final results. Once all ballots were counted, Bolsonaro had 3.7…

Does a photo prove that climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested in Rome for throwing confetti in a fountain at St. Peter's Square in October 2026? No, that's not true: That image of her had been online since 2023, and it showed her arrest in Sweden, not Italy. The rumor originated from a self-described satire network of pages known to…

Is there a real CVE record "CVE-2026-42069" about a critical issue and an exploit called "HTML2Shell" that documents remote code execution in HyperText Markup Language (HTML)? No, that's not true: A viral joke image re-uses the CVE-2026-42069 record number of a real CVE advisory about the open-source publishing software Kirby. The image contained a clear reference to an in-joke among…

Does a video prove that Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf did not shake hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in Lviv in April 2026? No, that's not true: The video cuts off before the two leaders actually shake hands. Video and photos published afterward show the king and Zelenskyy shaking hands immediately after the moment in the…

Does a real video show a man who helped a polar bear cub that could not walk until it could be released a year later? No, that's not true: This video was originally posted with a creator-added AI disclaimer label by an Instagram account that focuses on AI-generated videos. The same account published another video with a similar storyline the…

Does a video show a Tesla Roadster jumping off and back onto the Golden Gate Bridge? No, that's not true: An online tool concluded that the video was more than 99% likely to be AI-generated and that the audio was also AI-generated. There is no evidence of matching media reports about such a stunt on a major thoroughfare, which would…

Did the Toronto Sun publish an article reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a nuclear bunker in Canada in September 2026? No, that's not true: When contacted by Lead Stories, the outlet's deputy editor denied the claim. The article appeared on toronto-sun.ca, an impostor site registered eight days before the claim spread. The claim originated from an article (archived…