On Jan. 6, 2021, about 140 police officers were assaulted during the Capitol riot, and 326 participants — more than 100 armed with weapons — have been charged. But Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has used recently released video from that day to misleadingly minimize the violence at the riot and to distort the actions of the police.
The derailment of a freight train carrying toxic chemicals in eastern Ohio has sparked a slew of unfounded claims by conservative commentators. There’s no indication that this incident will rise to the level of a “domestic Chernobyl”; it has been covered steadily by the media; federal and state agencies are monitoring air and water quality and its impact on people and animals.
What appear to be ordinary postmortem blood clots are held up in a viral online video as supposed evidence that there’s a depopulation plot underway using COVID-19 vaccination to kill people. There’s no evidence for this theory. The hourlong video also repeats numerous falsehoods that have previously been debunked.
The bankruptcy of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has sparked an unfounded claim that its former CEO had conspired with Ukraine and Democratic politicians to launder U.S. aid money. FTX helped make crypto donations available to Ukraine; it wasn’t taking any assets from Ukraine.
Internet trolls have used the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and a fake tweet purportedly from Abe, to promote a long-standing, unfounded conspiracy theory that the Clintons are responsible for the deaths of multiple people. A suspect reportedly with a personal grudge has been arrested for the assassination.
Seven people died in a mass shooting in a Chicago suburb on Independence Day. Police said they believe the shooter was dressed in women’s clothing to conceal his identity and help him during his escape. But some social media users are claiming, with no evidence, that he is transgender.
At least 2,000 cattle have died following a heat wave in southwestern Kansas. Although the cattle apparently died of heatstroke, social media posts have made baseless claims suggesting that the deaths might be part of a larger conspiracy theory about the food supply.
Data on the number fires at food-processing plants in 2022 “does not signal anything out of the ordinary,” according to the National Fire Protection Association. Despite no evidence of foul play, unfounded rumors from conservative pundits suggest a rash of “mysterious fires” may be part of a plan to disrupt the food supply.
The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a novel coronavirus, first isolated in January 2020. But a viral video has been spreading a conspiracy theory that the pandemic has actually been a plot to poison people with snake venom.
Rothschild & Co. has an office in Moscow and has been operating in Russia since the mid-1990s. Yet posts on social media falsely claim that Russia has barred the Rothschild banking family from doing business in the country. The claim is the latest adaptation of an old conspiracy theory about the family.