A bogus headline on social media claims that President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration has been cancelled and that major TV networks are set to “lose” their “licenses.” The falsehood relies on a debunked post wrongly claiming that President Donald Trump has “invoked” the Insurrection Act and will remain in power.
The process of certifying Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, after being disrupted by rioters and delayed by Republicans who repeated false and misleading claims about the election results.
A hand count of paper ballots in Antrim County, Michigan, has verified the election results there, refuting a “forensics report” promoted by President Donald Trump that baselessly claimed the election equipment in the county was “designed” to create “systemic fraud and influence election results.” Experts said the faulty report showed a misunderstanding of voting system technology.
Our list of the 10 most egregious falsehoods of the year.
Facebook posts have repeated a false claim about a “one in a quadrillion” chance that President-elect Joe Biden received more votes than President Donald Trump in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Experts told us the claim misuses a questionable statistical analysis that made implausible assumptions about the 2020 election.
Rem Rieder — an editor at the Washington Post, Miami Herald, American Journalism Review and USA TODAY — looks back at his year of fact-checking in the age of Donald Trump.
A popular meme on Facebook falsely purports to show a photo of “Biden’s Inaugural stage” being built outside the White House. The photo shows the reviewing stand for the inaugural parade at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993.
Back in 2016, Donald Trump wrongly called his victory a “landslide.” Now, some are taking a page out of Trump’s book to claim Biden won in a landslide. He didn’t, either.
The percentage of mail-in ballots rejected in Georgia due to signature issues this year was about the same as in the 2016 and 2018 general elections — contrary to a tweet by President Donald Trump.
A report from two dozen experts — including a doctor named to President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board — recommended using existing social service programs to connect people with COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The report did not advise requiring vaccination in order to receive such services, as social media posts falsely claim.