@billmccarthy
Senior digital investigation journalist covering online mis- and disinformation for AFP • Formerly with PolitiFact and the Raleigh News & Observer • Duke alum • “The internet folks” - Stephen Colbert https://factcheck.afp.com/Bill-MCCARTHY
These images, claimed in several languages to show US soldiers captured by Iran, are AI-generated.
They have irregularities typical of AI fakes, including malformed fingers and an individual with three arms -- and they all carry Google Gemini watermarks.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
My AFP team is working around the clock, in 26 languages, to debunk misinformation about the war in the Middle East.
Read fact-checks in:
English: factcheck.afp.com/list/Iran-0
Arabic: factcheckarabic.afp.com/list/ayran-0
French: factuel.afp.com/list/Iran-0
Spanish: factual.afp.com/list/Iran-0
Elon Musk's PAC shared a deceptively edited video of James Talarico saying the border should be like a "front porch" with "a giant welcome mat out front."
The clip was cut to omit what Talarico said next: that it should also have "a lock on the door."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
This video has spread widely with claims it shows strikes on the US embassy in Riyadh -- and was amplified by Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
But the same footage was online weeks before the war, and I geolocated it to a highway several kilometers from the embassy.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat
Logs show violent calls to kill Black people, more than 400 uses of n-word, regularly describing women as “whores," using slurs to talk about Jewish & gay people and musings about Hitler.
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
The White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
x.com/WhiteHouse/s...
This video has spread widely with claims it shows strikes on the US embassy in Riyadh -- and was amplified by Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
But the same footage was online weeks before the war, and I geolocated it to a highway several kilometers from the embassy.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
Smoke rising over buildings at night with lights in the background
US and Israeli attacks on Iran this week have triggered retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, sparking the spread of misinformation around the world.
Here are some of the claims that our global team has debunked so far 🧵
My AFP team is working around the clock, in 26 languages, to debunk misinformation about the war in the Middle East.
Read fact-checks in:
English: factcheck.afp.com/list/Iran-0
Arabic: factcheckarabic.afp.com/list/ayran-0
French: factuel.afp.com/list/Iran-0
Spanish: factual.afp.com/list/Iran-0
This supposed US-Iran clip -- reportedly amplified by Texas Governor Greg Abbott -- is actually video game footage from "War Thunder," according to the game's developer.
The class of American battleship that it depicts was decommissioned decades ago.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
X's head of product announces that "users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict -- without adding a disclosure that it was made with AI -- will be suspended from Creator Revenue Sharing for 90 days."
US hockey star Brady Tkachuk bashed as "clearly fake" an AI-generated video the White House posted on TikTok that depicts him disparaging Canadians post-Olympics.
The White House lifted the clip from a 2025 fake by an account that churns out deepfakes of athletes.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The White House's AI-generated video of Brady Tkachuk that the US ice hockey star spoke against?
It originated with the parody account "realquotesai," which churns out deepfakes of athletes and posted it in 2025 after a fight-heavy game between the US and Canada.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The White House's AI-generated video of Brady Tkachuk that the US ice hockey star spoke against?
It originated with the parody account "realquotesai," which churns out deepfakes of athletes and posted it in 2025 after a fight-heavy game between the US and Canada.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
US hockey star Brady Tkachuk bashed as "clearly fake" an AI-generated video the White House posted on TikTok that depicts him disparaging Canadians post-Olympics.
The White House lifted the clip from a 2025 fake by an account that churns out deepfakes of athletes.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
San Diego and California state election officials both said Nick Shirley's claims that dozens of city residents illegally registered to vote at one UPS store are false.
The voters at that address are registered to an apartment building in the same complex.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
A popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes "a masterpiece" appears to be run by a White House staffer, according to records reviewed by WIRED. www.wired.com/story/a-whit...
EXCLUSIVE: An @npr.org investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.
Other documents that mention Trump have been taken down (and some restored).
More:
This video, claimed to show torch-wielding Ontarians marching against immigrants, is altered.
Audio from protests in other countries was dubbed over footage of the Cochrane Winter Carnival's torchlight parade, at which there were no such chants.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The government of Jalisco warns about the circulation of fake images, audio and posts as cartel members respond with violence to the killing by Mexican security forces of the drug lord "El Mencho."
Last summer, OpenAI employees debated alerting law enforcement about Jesse Van Rootselaar's interactions with ChatGPT
In February, Van Rootselaar became the suspect in the mass shooting that devastated a rural town in British Columbia
www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
This years-old falsehood that Donald Trump earned an award for helping "inner city Black youths" is back.
The photo is real, but Trump's Ellis Island Medal of Honor was for his NYC developments.
An Ellis Island Honors Society spox called these posts "ridiculous."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The photo in this Andy Ogles post claiming Zohran Mamdani "is turning New York into New Baghdad" was taken in 2024, when Eric Adams was the city's mayor. www.arabnews.pk/node/2474606...
Many X accounts are falsely claiming this image of an individual posing with a firearm and wearing a pink tank top shows the Tumbler Ridge shooter.
The picture is actually an altered version of an old photo of the far-right online commentator Vrillium.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
This person is not Tumbler Ridge suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar, who shot dead her mother and stepbrother before killing six others at a school.
The photos show Zylii Strang, whose mother is alive and told AFP her daughter was "devastated" after being misidentified.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
This video of RFK Jr doing a Jar Jar Binks impression is, indeed, fake -- as the video itself says at the end.
JUST IN:
A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump was convicted by a Florida jury of sexually abusing children, including an 11-year-old.
Per police, Andrew Paul Johnson tried to bribe one of his victims by promising to share expected Jan. 6 restitution money from the Trump admin.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said a memo announcing a 10-day shutdown of El Paso highways is fake. It spread online after FAA briefly closed the airspace.
"No roads are closed," Texas's transportation department told me. CCTV cameras show usual traffic.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The Texas Department of Public Safety said a memo announcing a 10-day shutdown of El Paso highways is fake. It spread online after FAA briefly closed the airspace.
"No roads are closed," Texas's transportation department told me. CCTV cameras show usual traffic.
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
The Texas Department of Public Safety says a purported memo claiming to show them issuing a 10-day road closure in the El Paso area is fake.
