In April 2019, a Facebook user shared the following meme (archived here), which purportedly provided several lines from an undelivered speech scheduled for U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Above an excerpted portion of text, the meme read: These are JFK’s last words, written for end of speech he planned to give …
‘Neither the Fanatics Nor the Faint-Hearted Are Needed’ Read More »
In early June 2019, a number of English-speaking news organizations reported that a 17-year-old Dutch girl named Noa Pothove had been “euthanized” at her request, following years of unsuccessful treatment due to the trauma of rape and sexual abuse: Among organizations reporting the claim were the Washington Post, the Daily Mail, The Sun, the New York Post, Fox News, and …
Was a Dutch Teenager Euthanized Because of Rape Trauma? Read More »
On June 4 2019, Facebook user James Johnson shared a video (archived here) purportedly showing large crowds of supporters shouting “we love Trump.” He then claimed that news outlets in the United Kingdom and United States deliberately refused to air the footage: Attached to the video was a status update: Massive crowd in the UK …
Did the Media Refuse to Cover Massive Crowds in England Chanting ‘We Love Trump’? Read More »
In June 2019, as United States President Donald Trump visited Britain to meet with the royal family and elected officials, a photograph purportedly of his English fans appeared on social media and made the usual rounds. One popular variation (archived here) came with additional commentary about how the media refuses to tell the story of …
On June 1 2019, the Facebook page “All Eyes On Me: Los Angeles” shared the following image (archived here) of seemingly discarded hypodermic needles in the city: A very brief description did not provide much context for the image, simply stating that the photograph was captured in Los Angeles in 2019: Needles, Los Angeles, 2019. …
Are the Streets of Los Angeles Littered with Syringes? Read More »
On June 2 2019, a Facebook user shared the following image (archived here), purportedly showing a thick covering of snow that had fallen on that date in Québec. A reverse image search did not indicate that the user’s image of snow in Québec in June 2019 had been shared elsewhere beforehand, although that did not …
On June 2 2019, the Facebook page “Pawz” shared the following post (archived here), tugging on readers’ heartstrings by claiming that the photograph represented routine daily euthanizations in an average shelter: A caption implied that the dogs were recently euthanized in the United States: Take a good, hard look at this picture. This is just …
Does an Image Show Dogs Euthanized in a Single Day in an Average American Shelter? Read More »
In May 2019, a suspicious looking meme began to make the usual rounds on social media. It shows a huge crowd of people packing a venue raptly gazing at a stage bearing “Trump 2020” signs on either side, with a third Trump banner over the audience: The text over the photograph said: No, this is …
In June 2019, social media users shared images of what appeared to be official New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway signage marking Pride month: A prominent iteration was shared by the Facebook page Occupy Democrats, but the post (archived here) did not indicate whether the MTA was actually responsible for the signs: However, many …
Is the MTA Posting Pride Signs on the NYC Subway? Read More »
The hunt for an “identical wrist freckle” among women on social media went viral in May 2019 following a widely-shared tweet: In it, the original poster included four images of a purportedly identical wrist freckle on four different people, and wrote: ladies….. u got a freckle on the middle of ur wrist or is this …
