Viral text posts are advancing the groundless claim that George Floyd’s arrest and death in Minneapolis were “staged” to incite “racial tensions.” But they offer no evidence to support that conspiracy theory.
Politically charged social media posts have wrongly identified pictures as showing the Minneapolis police officer who was seen kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, who died shortly after. The two photos circulating do not show the officer, Derek Chauvin.
Facebook users are circulating a fake screenshot of a supposed tweet from President Donald Trump, which purportedly praises his own “sacrifices” in recognition of Memorial Day. Trump never posted the tweet in question.
Facebook posts credit President Donald Trump with accomplishing a list of things that haven’t happened — claiming, for example, that he “cancelled” a proposed House bill on contact tracing and “expelled WHO.”
A viral claim on Facebook erroneously tells users that “you will test positive” for COVID-19 if “you’ve gotten flu shots during the past ten years.” Vaccine and infectious disease experts told us that’s false, and the Food and Drug Administration says this hasn’t been observed in any authorized tests.
Viral posts on social media falsely claim that a House bill would “give the government the power to forcibly remove” children from their homes. That’s not true. The bill actually provides $100 billion to fund COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.
The first installment of a documentary called “Plandemic” stormed through social media this week. But the viral video weaves a grand conspiracy theory by using a host of false and misleading claims about the novel coronavirus pandemic and its origins, vaccines, treatments for COVID-19, and more.
There’s no evidence that Bill Gates ever visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, contrary to a viral Facebook post claiming he went there numerous times. The “flight records” cited do not show that.
A viral Facebook post, spreading a political conspiracy theory about COVID-19, is wrongly attributed to former Rep. Trey Gowdy. Gowdy confirmed to us that he did not write the post in question.
Headlines shared across social media caused some to wrongly believe the White House is selling coins commemorating the COVID-19 pandemic. The coin referenced is being sold by the White House Gift Shop, which is a private company based in Pennsylvania.