After the death of YouTube gaming streamer Etika was confirmed in late June 2019, his on-and-off girlfriend Alice Pika hosted a memorial livestream on June 26 2019. Not long after, a rumor circulated on Reddit …
Did a Symbolic Random Chat Room Name Appear After Etika’s Death? Read More »
On June 26 2019, a Facebook user posted the following story about the death of their pug Zoe, urging other users to be aware of the purported danger posed by spent firework and sparkler ash: …
On June 9 2019, the Facebook page “No To Theocracy” shared the following meme (archived here), featuring a quote in which President Dwight Eisenhower appeared to have predicted Holocaust denial: Above a photograph skeletal human …
Did Dwight Eisenhower Say Someday ‘Someone Will Claim It Never Happened’ in 1945? Read More »
A December 2018 article headlined, “Man gets plastic surgery and name change to date his ex-girlfriend after she obtains restraining order” has appeared intermittently on social media after its publication. No obvious date appeared on the …
Did a Man Get Plastic Surgery and Change His Name to Circumvent a Restraining Order? Read More »
On June 26 2019, Eric Trump tweeted a meme attributing a quote about slander to the philosopher Socrates: pic.twitter.com/ojBEcJPGjt — Eric Trump (@EricTrump) June 26, 2019 Against an image of what appeared to be a …
Did Socrates Say ‘When Debate is Lost, Slander Becomes the Tool of the Losers’? Read More »
In June 2019, the following meme featuring a quote by a Fox News personality and a purported comic by Dr. Seuss on “foreign children” circulated on social media: At the top of the meme was …
In June 2019, social media posts popped up claiming that that it costs taxpayers $750 (or $775) per child per day to house immigrant children in “tent cities” and other detention facilities. A June 22 …
Does It Cost $750 a Day to House Migrant Children in Camps? Read More »
In June 2018, a Facebook user shared a post (archived here) featuring a screenshot of a tweet about rosary beads purportedly confiscated from migrants taken into custody by border agents. That post was shared more than …
Does an Photograph Show Rosaries Confiscated from Border Detainees? Read More »
On June 23 2019, the Facebook page “Just Disney” shared a meme which claimed that the late Don Rickles’ Mr. Potato Head character appeared in the feature film Toy Story 4 — despite his death in April …
Was Don Rickles Included in ‘Toy Story 4’ Thanks to Archival Material? Read More »
Despite fears of “deepfake” videos and other high-tech ways disinformation could potentially proliferate in the very near future, the stories that still get the most traction are often decidedly low effort. Take, for example, the …
Have Arrest Warrants Been Issued for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? Read More »
