AP Fact Check
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CLAIM: There are more than 18 million immigrants in the country without authorization but, unlike U.S. citizens, they are not required to pay taxes, rent, or receive vaccines.
CLAIM: Book sales for bestselling author Stephen King have dropped “90% since he went woke.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim originated on a satire website.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim originated on a satire website.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.
CLAIM: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that COVID-19 vaccines will not prevent any deaths among teenagers and lead to 100,000 to 200,000 severe side effects.
CLAIM: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to create “quarantine camps” in which people can be held against their will if they have COVID-19 or other diseases.
CLAIM: England is giving up on efforts to create 15-minute cities because people have destroyed all the cameras and refused to pay tens of thousands of fines.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The clip shows actors performing a skit, as a longer version makes clear. It was posted by a social media personality who has previously shared similar videos, including with some of the same actors, and who clarified that it was “openly fake.”
THE FACTS: A flurry of claims in recent months have tried to baselessly blame Microsoft co-founder Gates for spreading diseases through projects that his foundation has financed. But the claims are rooted in misunderstanding and distortion.
THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing posts falsely claiming a California bill requiring a workplace violence prevention plan would make it illegal for non-security personnel to address crime at their place of business.
THE FACTS: As search efforts continue following massive flooding in Libya over the weekend, social media users are circulating videos claiming to show scenes of the devastation in real time.
Social media users shared a range of false claims this week. Here are the facts: COVID-19 cases have spiked at various times of the year, not only near elections.
THE FACTS: As hurricane season bears down on the U.S. East Coast, social media users are once again using the annual arrival of the powerful storms to question the existence of climate change.
THE FACTS: As U.S. health officials recommend most Americans receive an updated COVID-19 vaccine, some online are re-airing false claims about the shots — with a new spin.
CLAIM: The U.S. accidentally sent Ukraine $6 billion in military aid. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim misinterprets an announcement by a Pentagon spokesperson in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine over the past two years by $6.2 billion.
THE FACTS: Bill Gates is once again at the center of false reports on social media for his commitment to addressing the impacts of climate change.
THE FACTS: A week after social media users misrepresented a video of a helicopter releasing black smoke as a swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitoes funded by the Microsoft co-founder, the same false claim is being applied to similar footage in other states.
THE FACTS: After a rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco last week, social media users began falsely claiming that the video was connected to the devastation in North Africa.
THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a video showing the outside of an office that FEMA recently opened in Chicago to suggest the agency knows something bad is about to happen but isn’t warning residents.