Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: The South Korean National Assembly
The New York Times
Election Date: 10/04/2023
South Koreans go to the polls to select a new 300-member National Assembly this week. The parliamentary elections are widely seen as a midterm referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol. They will also serve as a vote of confidence on the opposition Democratic Party, which has held majority control in the Assembly for the past four years.
#Conflicts
Reuters
False: McDonald's congratulates Israeli military over Gaza killings.
McDonald’s in Scotland did not publish a customer notice congratulating the Israeli military on the killing of thousands of civilians in Gaza, as suggested in social media posts sharing a photo of a poster bearing that message and the company’s logo. The poster was created by an activist group and displayed at McDonald’s outlets across Glasgow.
India Today
False: Video shows Iran attacking the Israeli city of Tel Aviv with missiles.
On April 1, an airstrike destroyed the consular section of Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus. Iran has accused Israel of this strike, which reportedly killed thirteen people. The video being shared shows a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-occupied Crimean port of Sevastopol in March 2024.
Lead Stories
False: Iran attacked the U.S. Naval vessel USS Liberty off the coast of Bahrain in April 2024.
The U.S. Navy does not have an active ship by that name at the time of writing, and there were no reports of any other U.S. vessel being hit by Iranian missile strikes.
#Politics
PolitiFact
Mostly True: The current United States Congress is “the least productive in our lifetime".
The current Congress has enacted half as many bills through March 26 as any previous Congress did through that date going back to 1989. A longer look at the data shows that for low productivity in enacted bills, the 118th’s only competition would go back to at least the Civil War era.
Factcheck.afp
False: Trump is being prosecuted for taking out a loan and paying it back.
Social media users claim former US president Donald Trump faced criminal charges for simply taking out a loan and paying it back. The posts misrepresent a New York civil fraud case in which a judge ruled the Republican presidential candidate and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favourable bank loans or insurance terms.
Factcheck.afp
False: Muslims who want to live under Sharia law should leave, says former Australian PM.
Official transcripts of speeches by Australia's former prime minister Julia Gillard contained no trace of her telling Muslim immigrants to "get out of Australia" if they wanted to live under Islamic sharia law, contradicting posts that claimed she made the remarks on September 19, 2012.
#Healthcare
Africa Check
False: An infusion of bitter kola and mango leaves could fight cancer, diabetes and other diseases.
According to a post on Facebook, drinking a mixture of bitter kola, mango leaf and a popular Nigerian candy will “fight” a variety of conditions, including cancer and diabetes, and lower blood sugar. There is no scientific evidence for this claim.
Factcheck.afp
False: Kate Middleton's Turbo Cancer was caused by her mRNA vaccination.
Experts have reiterated that there is no evidence linking cancer with Covid-19 vaccination, contrary to false claims that circulated on social media after Kate Middleton revealed she had been diagnosed with the disease aged just 42. An increase in the recorded rates of cancer in young people has been observed since at least the early 1990s.
#Other
USA Today
False: ‘The Simpsons’ predicted police investigation of the rapper known as Diddy.
Social media is circulating images purportedly showing Sean "Diddy" Combs being arrested on an episode of "The Simpsons". These images are actually AI-generated creations mimicking the style of the show. While Diddy is indeed the focus of a federal investigation, there has been no actual arrest. Claims suggesting that "The Simpsons" predicted the rapper's legal issues are also unfounded.
Factcheck.afp
False: A video shows a child blinded by the 2024 solar eclipse.
TikTok posts with millions of views claim to show a child going blind after observing the solar eclipse visible over much of North America on April 8, 2024. This is false; while staring into the Sun can cause eye injuries, the boy in the video did not lose his vision – he was acting in a YouTube skit originally posted after a 2017 eclipse.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: 1950s 'Atomic Energy Lab' Kit for Kids Used Real Radioactive Materials.
Dubbed one of the "10 most dangerous toys of all time" a miniature atomic energy lab is said to have been a widely sought-after children's toy in the 1950s – and it reportedly included four small jars of real uranium.
Factiverse is searching for its next Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Factiverse is looking for a seasoned professional to join as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to spearhead our mission of shielding individuals and organisations from misinformation. Click here to learn more.
Factiverse GPT
Concerned about hallucinations in ChatGPT? Use our GPT and verify information. We search in real-time in Google, Bing and Semantic Scholar simultaneously and propose the most credible sources. Try our GPT now!
Check out the Factiverse Blog
Want to know more about the world of misinformation and fact-checking? If so, make sure to out the Factiverse Blog! We explore these topics to give our readers a better understanding of these topics while also giving guidelines on how organisations can protect themselves. Click here to look at our list of posts.