A thoroughly debunked hoax claiming that Instagram users can stop the platform from using their pictures if they post a statement rescinding permission has been circulating again. This time, it ensnared a member of the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has claimed no fewer than seven times over the past three years — including at a recent rally in New Hampshire — that he won Michigan’s “man of the year” award. But there’s no evidence that he did.
Facebook posts erroneously attribute a quote to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. He didn’t say that “there are no mass shootings in Japan because there are no video games there.”
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said workers living in the U.S. illegally who were swept up in immigration raids at chicken processing plants in Mississippi are “doing a job that no one else will do.” The jobs are hard and don’t pay well, but they are in demand at one of the plants.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed without evidence that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement would add “180,000 new jobs per year” in the U.S.
In a July 31 television interview, Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson inaccurately implied there might be a connection between vaccines and higher reported rates of childhood chronic diseases. She is correct that reported rates of chronic conditions in kids have increased over the last several decades, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest vaccines are the cause.
Robert Sweet, a federal judge who was overseeing a civil case against Jeffrey Epstein, was not “killed,” as a headline claims, nor did he die in August, as other recently published stories suggest. Sweet died of natural causes in March at age 96.
A viral meme on Facebook falsely claims that members of Congress have received a “231%” increase in pay in the last 30 years. Automatic cost-of-living adjustments have resulted in an increase of 94.4% from 1989 to 2009.
In this fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper explains the Obama-era Department of Justice’s finding that Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer in “self-defense,” not “murdered,” as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris claimed.
In Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the trade deficit with Japan is “changing rapidly.” In fact, the U.S. deficit in goods and services with Japan is up slightly under Trump.