Will a Kentucky Bill Mandate That Women Confirm Whether They’re Pregnant Every Month?
A protest amendment to HB 148 appearing to require notarized monthly statements from fertile women was mistaken for sincere legislation by some readers.
Politics
Are New Abortion Laws in Alabama and Ohio Defined as ‘Forced Pregnancy’ under UN Genocide Conventions?
On May 17 2019, a Facebook user shared one of several social media claims that controversial new near-total abortion bans in Alabama, Ohio, and Georgia constituted “forced pregnancy” under United Nations (UN) regulations governing the definition and handling of genocide and genocidal acts. The post (archived here) included a screenshot from the United Nations Office …
Could Alabama Women Be Jailed for 99 Years Under a New Abortion Law?
On May 14 2019, the state of Alabama’s legislature passed an extremely restrictive law banning nearly all abortions, and social media posts suggested women faced 99 years in prison for obtaining an abortion under its provisions. The claim appeared on Twitter: Additionally, a Facebook user shared a lengthy status update about the law (archived here), …
Could Alabama Women Be Jailed for 99 Years Under a New Abortion Law? Read More »
Does the Alabama Abortion Ban Have a ‘False Rape’ Reporting Clause?
Four days before the Alabama Senate voted to pass a near-total ban on abortion in Alabama, a Facebook screenshot by act.tv of two tweets (archived here) claimed that the legislation included a clause enabling imprisoning those reporting rapes in the state if the accused was not found guilty: A tweet at the bottom by Adam Savage …
Does the Alabama Abortion Ban Have a ‘False Rape’ Reporting Clause? Read More »
Does a Proposed Ohio Bill Make the Pill and IUDs Illegal?
In May 2019, a number of posts about “heartbeat bills” in various American states circulated on social media. For example, a rumor about Georgia (archived here) subsequently appeared that proposed legislation would purportedly ban birth control pills and IUDs. One popular Facebook post about a provision of yet another bill, this time in Ohio, featured a …
Does a Proposed Ohio Bill Make the Pill and IUDs Illegal? Read More »
New Georgia Abortion Law Conspiracy to Commit Murder Clause
On May 7 2019, a Facebook user shared the following screenshot of an apparent article (archived here), along with a lengthy comment about extremely restrictive new abortion laws in the state of Georgia: A lengthy comment from the original poster (paragraph breaks ours) extrapolated from the highlighted text in the screenshot, proposing scenarios in particular …
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Is a Proposed Bill in Texas Trying to Disenfranchise the Elderly and Poor by Prohibiting Transportation to Polls?
On May 6 2019, the following tweet described proposed legislation in Texas that would purportedly disenfranchise voters unable to drive themselves to the polls: A prominent retweet garnered several thousand more shares: A screenshot of the same tweet with additional commentary from a different account was shared to Facebook by act.tv a day later. Together, both …
Did Lindsey Graham Call Donald Trump a ‘Kook’ and ‘Not Fit to Lead’ in 2016?
On May 1 2019, the Facebook page “The Other 98%” shared the following meme (archived here), contrasting 2016 with 2019 quotes from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and characterizations of President Trump as a “kook” who is “not fit to lead”: Photographs of Graham at the top right and bottom left were captioned with two separate …
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Does a ‘Leaked’ British Intelligence Document Prove Trump Wiretapping Claims?
In April 2019, in the days and weeks following the release of a heavily anticipated (and heavily redacted) Special Counsel’s report on interference into the 2016 United States presidential elections, rumors and speculation reinvigorated a March 2017 conspiracy theory that British intelligence spied on the Trump campaign for the Obama administration: President Trump provoked a rare public dispute with …
Does a ‘Leaked’ British Intelligence Document Prove Trump Wiretapping Claims? Read More »
Is USPS Losing Money Because of a 2006 Pension Law?
On April 8 2019, Facebook page “The Other 98%” shared a post (archived here) claiming that the United States Postal Service was mistakenly believed to be losing money thanks to online retailers like Amazon, when in actuality the shortfall was because of a 2006 law mandating that USPS pre-fund worker pensions: It read: DID YOU KNOW? …
Is USPS Losing Money Because of a 2006 Pension Law? Read More »