Truth or Fake

Donald Trump has launched "America", an AI chatbot designed as a digital portal for US government information. But its responses appear to be changing. The chatbot initially challenged several of Trump's claims, including on the 2020 election and inflation, providing evidence and links. More recently, it has refused to answer some of the same questions. Other responses still contradict Trump, whil...

The White House calls them public service announcements, like those used in past administrations. But almost everyone else doesn't agree, with three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify US President Donald Trump drawing criticism from across the partisan divide. Legal experts say the ads violate federal laws on government propaganda, as FRANCE 24's Emerald Maxwell explains in this edition o...

Five men arrested over a suspected bomb plot at RAF Fairford have been released on bail as investigations continue. Meanwhile, AI-enhanced images purporting to show their faces have gone viral, with some users claiming this "proves" the men are Muslim. SynthID confirms the sharpened images were created using OpenAI tools, meaning the AI has suggested different facial features. UK police have not d...

A viral video claims Danish officials played Judy Collins's "Send in the Clowns" as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived for a Greenland signing ceremony, sparking claims of Danish "trolling". Our checks of separate livestreams confirm the song really played and the video was not manipulated. Denmark has denied choosing the music, while the UN says it did not organise the event. Whilst the so...

Donald Trump's UN address was packed with claims that are misleading, false or exaggerated. He said the US has more munitions than it could ever use, despite reports of depleting stocks. He also claimed the US and Venezuela hold 60 percent of the world's oil, despite the numbers not adding up, and he said he had ended the war in Gaza despite ongoing Israeli strikes and deaths since last year's cea...

A viral NATO video is being falsely framed online as "war propaganda", with users accusing the Alliance of sharing a "promotional video" designed to prepare the public for imminent war with Russia. But the footage is not new: NATO published it in July 2024 for its 75th anniversary, and it's been stripped of its original context. The claim comes as European leaders warn of growing Russian hybrid th...

Ed Sheeran's controversial US tour has sparked a wave of viral rumours. A false claim that his music was removed from Spotify racked up more than 3 million views on X, despite his music remaining available. Another video, viewed over 14 million times, falsely suggested Sheeran was now defiantly performing solo after all his support acts withdrew. But not only is the footage dated, Sheeran has in f...

With US midterm elections now less than two months away, a series of videos have surfaced online, featuring celebrities seemingly denouncing the Democrats. However, the clips are fake, and were created using AI, as FRANCE 24's Charlotte Hughes explains.

A viral selfie allegedly showing leaders including, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra at the BRICS summit in New Delhi is AI-generated. A SynthID watermark shows it was created using OpenAI tools. Several leaders pictured, including Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, did not attend. Another AI selfie...

A video claiming to show Houthi rebels ambushing Saudi-backed mercenaries has racked up major views on X . But the  FRANCE 24 Observers  found it is actually footage of 2024 Houthi military drills. The clip was edited with football commentary and blurred flags, which originally show Israel, the UK and US, not Saudi Arabia. Other viral videos falsely linked to Houthi attacks on a Saudi Aramco refin...

Meta is expanding its shift away from professional fact-checking. The tech giant announced it's trialling it's crowdsourced " Community Notes" system across 16 countries in Latin America. Meta says the system will only fully roll out once it is confident it works, but critics warn that with misinformation, manipulated images and AI-generated content spreading rapidly, crowdsourced checks may come...

As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the press over coverage questioning where he was. This week, he said two firefighters carried him to safety near the US Steel Building right after the attacks, though he later said that he wasn’t at the World Trade Center on the day of the collapse. His version of events and alleged role at Ground Zero have evo...

Pro-Israel lobby group UN Watch has alleged that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred to Francesca Albanese, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Palestine, as "out of control", saying he'd previously called her a "horrible woman". But Guterres named no one in his remarks. He said "many" independent rapporteurs were "totally out of control", without singling out any individual. The UN has sinc...

As US-Iran hostilities flare up and strikes resume, so has a wave of misinformation online. Old and unrelated videos are flooding social media, falsely presented as footage of new attacks. As tensions escalate, clips filmed in Dubai, Russia and the US have been misrepresented as Iranian strikes on US bases in the Gulf. Elsewhere, a 68-year-old video of a US nuclear test has been falsely claimed to...

Lake Ontario is now appearing as "Lake America" on Google Maps for US users, following US President Donald Trump's executive order to rename the lake. Canadians still see "Lake Ontario", while users elsewhere see both names. But the change is far from universal: Apple Maps and MapQuest continue to use Lake Ontario. MapQuest has remained defiant against the move and since surged to the top of the U...

As deadly floods hit the Nepal-China border, social media is being inundated with fake and misleading footage. In Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl goes through viral videos falsely linked to the disaster, including AI-generated content and old recycled footage from India, Chile and Alaska. Some posts have racked up millions of views online, exploiting the tragedy to drive engagement for easy clicks or f...

When announcing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had been drained again, US President Donald Trump doubled down on his vandalism claims, but his latest account raises fresh questions. Online, Trump said the alleged "slashes" stretched for 300 yards, after previously describing them as 250, 300 and 350 feet. This comes as photos and video of the empty pool don't appear to show any obvious signs...

Following weeks of speculation over his health after he hadn’t been seen in weeks, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell shared a "proof of life" photo showing himself alive and well in an apparent bid to silence the rumours. Instead, it fuelled a fresh wave of conspiracy theories. 

Viral claims with millions of views falsely claim the European Parliament has launched a probe into FIFA chief Gianni Infantino. In reality, 72 MEPs penned a letter to EU football associations, urging them to seek a formal FIFA review into the controversial Balogun red card reversal. No probe has been opened, but the episode adds to growing scrutiny around FIFA’s president. 

AI-generated fake videos, viral hoaxes and real racism are colliding at the FIFA World Cup. From a fabricated Ronald Koeman rant and false claims targeting Algerian fans to the racist abuse of Kylian Mbappé and FIFA investigations, misinformation is spreading alongside genuine discrimination. Vedika Bahl fact-checks the biggest World Cup racism claims, debunks the false ones, and separates AI-gene...

Egypt has filed a formal complaint with FIFA after its controversial World Cup exit to Argentina, accusing officials of “double standards” and demanding the removal of the referee and his team. Egypt led 2-0 before Argentina staged a dramatic comeback, with controversy centred on a VAR decision that ruled out a crucial Egyptian goal. The defeat has since fuelled viral claims on social media of Arg...

International news agencies documented huge crowds at former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral procession in Tehran. But alongside genuine images of mourners, AI-generated videos and photos falsely claiming to show the event have spread widely online. Some exaggerate the size of the crowds, while others feature tell-tale AI errors and fabricated landmarks designed to generate clicks...

On the eve of a key NATO summit, US Presient Donald Trump reignited his feud with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by sharing a doctored image on Truth Social, captioned “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.” The altered image is based on genuine G7 footage but changes Meloni's facial expression to make her appear enamoured with Trump. This new jab follows weeks of bitter public clashes between the two...

Austria and Algeria's dramatic 3-3 World Cup draw sparked online claims that the match was fixed to send both teams into the knockout stage at Iran's expense. Conspiracy theories, misleading videos and fake FIFA notices have fuelled the speculation, with some dubbing it the "Disgrace of Kansas City" in a nod to the infamous 1982 "Disgrace of Gijón". But is there any evidence the game was engineere...

The US Supreme Court has dealt a major blow to President Donald Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship, ruling that children born in the US are citizens under the Constitution regardless of their parents' immigration status. The decision also casts fresh scrutiny on Trump's repeated claims about the policy, including that the US is the only country with birthright citizenship and that it's driv...