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President-elect Donald Trump and some social media users and pundits blamed Los Angeles’ deadly fires on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrat’s environmental policies enabled the blazes’ danger and wreckage. As of Jan. 10, authorities counted at least 10 people dead, more than 35,000 acres burned and thousands of structures damaged or destroyed.  Some […]

President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 10 felony sentencing raised questions on social media about his rights: Can he vote, travel internationally and own a gun?  Yes, likely, and no.  A Manhattan jury on May 30 found Trump guilty of 34 counts of felony falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up a hush money payment […]

Although the person suspected of ramming a pickup truck into a New Orleans crowd on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people, was born and raised in the U.S., Republican politicians have sought to tie the attack to U.S. border security.  Talking with anchor Jake Tapper on Jan. 5 on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. […]

Column by PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Katie Sanders: As I weigh Meta’s decision to break up with American fact-checkers, I keep returning to this: The censorious fact-checking program Meta described is not the fact-checking program I know. On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a five-minute video he was going to “get rid of fact-checkers” and […]

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., reintroduced legislation Jan. 3 she said would keep dangerous immigrants out of the country — people who have committed sex crimes or domestic abuse.  On social media, critics used the occasion to deride House Democrats who first voted against the bill in September. “There is no justification. 158 Democrats voted […]

After eight years of working with professional journalists to flag misinformation on its platforms, Meta will turn that task over to users. The tech giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads — announced Tuesday that in the United States, it will switch to a crowdsourced fact-checking model similar to X’s Community Notes system. Under […]

Meta pondrá fin a su colaboración de ocho años con periodistas estadounidenses independientes, incluyendo a PolitiFact, para identificar información falsa y engaños en sus plataformas.  Meta moderará su contenido con un modelo similar al de Notas Comunitarias de X, dijo el CEO de Meta, Mark Zuckerberg. En un video de cinco minutos publicado el 7 […]

Meta will end its eight-year partnership with independent American journalists, including PolitiFact, to identify false information and hoaxes on its platforms. Meta’s content moderation approach will resemble X’s Community Notes model, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. In a five-minute video posted Jan. 7, Zuckerberg cited the political environment after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory and a […]

Social media posts are making links between the terrorist attack in New Orleans and the vehicle explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day — because the suspects served at Fort Liberty, a large military base in North Carolina formerly known as Fort Bragg.  Some posts stated definitively that the […]

On Jan. 3, the new Congress — the 119th — officially began its duties. Once Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, Republicans will have unified control of government. But particularly in the House, the margin will be close. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., was reelected House speaker on Jan. 3., receiving the […]

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old suspected driver in the New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans, was a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran. But within hours of the attack — which killed 14 people and is being investigated as an act of terrorism — President-elect Donald Trump, Republican leaders and social media influencers speculated that Jabbar […]

When Jimmy Carter entered the national political scene in the 1970s, the peanut-farmer-turned-Georgia-governor touted his status as a relative political unknown. But nearly 50 years after winning the U.S. presidency, serving a single, troubled term and engaging in more than four decades of postpresidential work to promote global democracy, eradicate disease and build homes for […]