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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Images Show IRS Educational Program, Not Training of Agents

Images Show IRS Educational Program, Not Training of Agents

The IRS Criminal Investigation division’s “Adrian Project” educates the public about the IRS through community outreach sessions with high school and college students. Posts on social media are sharing a video from one of the sessions to falsely claim it shows agents in training. The images were posted by a New Jersey university in 2017 and earlier this year.

Online ‘Stimulus Loan’ Offers Are Not Related to Government Programs

Online ‘Stimulus Loan’ Offers Are Not Related to Government Programs

Three stimulus payments have been sent to Americans to ease the economic impact of the pandemic. Social media posts are now sharing a false claim about a new, $40,000 federal stimulus loan. But it’s a marketing ploy. The bottom of the web page says, “This is not a government program nor is it government aid, this is an advertorial for a loan service.” 

Posts Distort Chinese Research Creating Fragment of Monkeypox Viral Genome

Posts Distort Chinese Research Creating Fragment of Monkeypox Viral Genome

A Wuhan Institute of Virology study describes assembling part of a monkeypox viral genome for use in a diagnostic test. Although the researchers only made a fraction of the genome — and it matches a different version of the virus — social media posts are using the study to baselessly claim that the current monkeypox outbreak is a result of a lab leak.

Posts on Social Media Misinterpret Biden’s Quote on Previous Cancer

Posts on Social Media Misinterpret Biden’s Quote on Previous Cancer

President Joe Biden claimed in a July 20 speech that growing up in Delaware near oil refineries gave him cancer. Posts on social media misinterpreted that to mean he currently has cancer. A White House spokesperson said Biden was referring to a skin cancer that was removed before he became president. 

Social Media Posts Misleadingly Edit and Misrepresent Biden Remarks from Teleprompter

Social Media Posts Misleadingly Edit and Misrepresent Biden Remarks from Teleprompter

President Joe Biden quoted the Supreme Court majority opinion on ending the constitutional right to abortion in remarks he made on July 8. Social media posts falsely claim he mistakenly read teleprompter cues. A White House press secretary told us Biden intentionally said “end of quote” and then said “repeat the line” for emphasis, and the full, live remarks support that explanation. 

‘Liberal World Order’ Is Decades-Old Term Misinterpreted by Social Media Posts

‘Liberal World Order’ Is Decades-Old Term Misinterpreted by Social Media Posts

“Liberal world order” is a decades-old term referring to a system of global cooperation. A Biden administration adviser used the term to explain why gasoline prices are tied to the war in Ukraine. But social media posts use the adviser’s comments to misleadingly claim Biden is pushing a “new liberal world order” to make Americans pay “high gas prices forever.”