Latest Stories By Sara Swann

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, some social media users continue to spread false claims that the 2020 presidential contest was stolen, pointing to purported fraud in Georgia as evidence. A May 9 Instagram post claimed that Fulton County, Georgia, election officials “scanned more than 3,000 ballots twice during the recount of the 2020 presidential […]

Aaron Rodgers, already famous after nearly two decades as an NFL quarterback, is drawing a new kind of notoriety for peddling conspiracy theories. Recently, a video clip went viral of Rodgers, known for his anti-vaccine views, criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci’s handling of the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic during his decadeslong tenure as director […]

Recent U.S. outbreaks of avian influenza and the first known case of a human contracting bird flu from a mammal have ignited concerns that bird flu will be the next pandemic.  Some social media users are claiming bird flu will be worse than COVID-19, which caused more than 1.2 million U.S. deaths since 2020. “GET […]

Una publicación en redes sociales hizo lo que parecía ser un anuncio sorprendente sobre la carrera presidencial de 2024. “Últimas noticias: Donald Trump ha declarado que se retira de la carrera presidencial”, dice el narrador en un video en inglés en TikTok, el cual fue visto más de 161,000 veces antes de que TikTok lo […]

A recent social media post made what appeared to be a surprising announcement about the 2024 presidential race. “Breaking news: Donald Trump has declared that he is pulling out of the run for president,” the narrator said in a Feb. 22 TikTok video, which was viewed more than 161,000 times before TikTok removed it from […]

In the aftermath of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting, some social media users wondered why local authorities and news outlets have not released certain information about the juvenile suspects. One of them was Kyle Rittenhouse, who was 17 when he was arrested in the high-profile fatal shootings of two men during a […]

In the historic Feb. 13 impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, House Republicans said the Homeland Security secretary “willfully and systematically refused to comply with immigration laws” and “breached public trust” by falsely telling Congress the U.S.-Mexico border was secure. This is the second time in U.S. history that a Cabinet member has been impeached; the first […]

It’s one of the spookiest zombie claims out there about voter fraud: Dead people are voting. Former President Donald Trump has said this multiple times, including after losing the 2020 election. In January 2021, Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that “close to 5,000” dead people voted in the state. But officials found […]

While his leading Republican competitors tangled on a Des Moines, Iowa, debate stage across town, former President Donald Trump shared attention-grabbing anecdotes and recycled claims in his own town hall. The Jan. 10 event hosted by Fox News five days before the Iowa caucuses covered a wide range of topics, including foreign policy, COVID-19 and […]

Editor’s note: This story contains references and links to graphic images and videos. The story is a revised version of one we published Oct. 20. We corrected and recast that story following an article by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis. See this note from our editor-in-chief for more explanation. More […]

Less than a year away from the 2024 election, political experts see two prevalent attitudes among American voters. Low enthusiasm among Democrats for President Joe Biden’s reelection. And Republicans’ unshakeable loyalty to former President Donald Trump. Although much could change in the coming months, PolitiFact got a peek into voters’ minds during two discussions at […]

Decimated communities. Burned-out buildings. Survivors mourning loved ones killed amid smoke and debris. These are the all-too-real scenes of Israel and Gaza. But in the days since Hamas militants launched an Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the deadliest in years, online misinformation has distorted the facts around the conflict. Outdated and fictional images and videos […]