FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on the social media network. We provide several resources for readers: a guide on how to flag suspicious stories on Facebook and a list of websites that have carried false or satirical articles, as well as a video and story on how to spot false stories.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Republican President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, was affiliated with the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party and was a supporter of slavery and the Confederacy. Social media posts claim without evidence that Booth was a Democrat.
The ingredients of McDonald’s restaurant food have been the subject of bogus claims in social media posts in recent years. In April, posts falsely claimed the fast-food chain includes xylitol, which is toxic to dogs, in its ice cream. The company told us xylitol is not used in its food, and the sweetener isn’t listed as an ingredient on McDonald’s website.
The Disney Company opposed Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, also referred to by critics as “Don’t Say Gay.” Disney’s actions sparked calls from conservatives for a boycott of Disney — and a flurry of unfounded or exaggerated claims on social media that the company was suffering declines in subscribers, visitors and stock value.
A Tennessee bill is aimed at excluding same-sex couples from proposed common law marriage contracts. Social media posts misleadingly claim the bill would allow child marriage and “legalize pedophilia.” The bill initially omitted a minimum age, but was amended on April 6 to say individuals must be at least 18 years old.
Conspiracy theories aimed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been circulating on social media since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. One recent example, falsely attributed to a “Pentagon official,” is the unfounded claim that Zelensky is the cousin of billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
In a campaign ad, Josh Mandel, a Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, shared an image of himself as a Marine with a group of Black troops. Social media posts falsely claim that Mandel photoshopped his head onto the body of a Black Marine. The Mandel campaign denied the claim and provided the media with a copy of the original image.
A recent Facebook post falsely claims that CNN footage from the war in Ukraine was faked, citing a firefighter’s jacket bearing the name of a Canadian city. But the footage was shot in Ukraine. The jacket was donated by a Canadian organization.
Republicans did not nominate former Judge Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Facebook post falsely claims that Brown — not Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — was the first Black woman to be nominated to the nation’s highest court.
Amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, a misleading photo posted March 22 on Facebook shows an American fighter jet intercepting a Russian bomber near Alaskan airspace. But the incident was not related to the current situation in Ukraine; the photo appeared in an article published in Aero Magazine in June 2020.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a barrage of false claims on social media, including posts that purport to show a video of “crisis actors” portraying dead victims of the fighting. The video used in the posts is from a climate protest held in Vienna, Austria, weeks before the war in Ukraine began.