Your weekly fact-checks
#MajorNewsFeature
Forbes
Factiverse CEO, Maria Amelie, was featured in Forbes Magazine.
The article examines the consequences of Meta’s decision to end third-party fact-checking, highlighting how social media platforms prioritize engagement over truth, fueling misinformation and societal division. Maria contributes by emphasizing the role of AI in fact verification, advocating for transparency, and criticizing Meta’s justification for scrapping fact-checking. She also highlights Europe’s regulatory approach and suggests limiting viral misinformation through various initiatives. Read more about this important topic in the article above.
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 German federal election
AP News
Election Date: 23/02/2025
Germany’s upcoming parliamentary election on Sunday will determine the country’s next government, with conservative candidate Friedrich Merz leading in polls, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) holds a strong second place with around 20% support. Despite AfD’s rise, all mainstream parties have ruled out forming a coalition with them, making government formation a complex process. The election’s outcome will influence Germany’s economic policies, migration stance, and its role in European stability.
#Politics
Lead Stories
False: Authentic German election ballots show AfD party votes left out.
Viral posts circulating on social media claim that the AfD party is missing on the authentic ballots in the city of Leipzig, Germany. The publicly available sample ballot still listed AfD the day the claim began to spread. A press release from Leipzig authorities described the posts as showing "fake ballots" and ruled out printing errors. The matter is being investigated by German law enforcement.
USA Today
False: Denmark offered $1 trillion to buy California.
A viral social media post falsely claims that Denmark offered $1 trillion to buy California from the U.S. The Danish government has made no such proposal, and the claim stems from a satirical fundraising attempt rather than a serious offer. Fact-checkers have rated the claim as false.
Lead Stories
False: Trump signed an executive order kicking people out of public housing after two years.
There is no such executive order posted on the White House website as of February 12, 2025. A search of Trump's official remarks in 2025 also did not locate any mention of public housing or a deadline order.
PolitiFact
False: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is “being charged with the attempted assassination of Trump.”
A private citizen filed a criminal complaint Feb. 7 accusing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro of involvement in the July assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. Pennsylvania law allows citizens to file criminal complaints against other citizens. A district attorney then decides whether the allegations have enough merit to begin an investigation. Butler’s district attorney said he rejected a similar complaint about Shapiro in July and that no investigation of Shapiro is underway. He is reviewing the February complaint but said he does not anticipate it resulting in an investigation.
#Economy
Full Fact
Half-True: The IMF and the OECD both say the UK will be the fastest-growing European economy in the years ahead.
That isn’t what the latest projections from those organisations show. Several European countries are projected to have faster growth than the UK in 2025 and 2026, though the UK is projected to have the fastest growth of the four European countries in the G7.
#Disasters
Lead Stories
False: Photo shows Toronto plane crash involving overturned Delta plane.
According to an online detection tool, the image was generated using AI. It also featured a Grok AI logo and several artefacts inconsistent with reality.
Reuters
False: Inconsistent timestamps on CNN and Google are evidence Potomac crash was planned.
A social media claim suggesting CNN reported on the January 29 Washington, D.C. air collision hours before it happened is misleading. The discrepancy between Google’s timestamps and CNN’s publication times is due to a known glitch affecting how dates are indexed, not evidence of a planned crash. Fact-checkers confirm CNN only reported the incident after it occurred.
#Conflicts
Lead Stories
Half-True: Zelenskyy said, "The Risk That Russia Will Occupy Europe Is 100%".
A viral video of an interview on Meet The Press left out the part of the video just before he said that sentence. The full context of the interview shows Zelenskyy saying that if the United States withdrew from NATO or if NATO was destroyed, the risk of Russia occupying Europe (or part of it) would be 100 per cent.
#Healthcare
Full Fact
False: Covid-19 does not exist.
A post on Instagram shares a woman claims, among other things, that “COVID-19 does not exist” and “germs don't cause disease”. However this is false. Covid-19 is a real disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has been isolated many times. Germs are also proven to cause disease.
Lead Stories
False: Chlorine dioxide is a safe effective cure for health covid autism.
Chlorine dioxide is a gaseous chemical that makes a bleach-like substance when added to water. The highly reactive chemical is used as a cleaning agent and can be fatal if ingested. Even so, chlorine dioxide has been fraudulently presented as a treatment for several diseases. Health experts agree that ingesting or internally using chlorine dioxide outside of approved methods has no health benefits and can result in adverse health outcomes, including death.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Det er ikke sandt: Alle, der bruger Ozempic i mellem et og tre år, vil udvikle kræft i skjoldbruskkirtlen.
På grund af bekymring angiver den amerikanske fødevare- og lægemiddelstyrelse, FDA, faktisk tumorer og kræft i skjoldbruskkirtlen som en potentiel risiko ved brug af Ozempic. Ozempic bør derfor ikke gives til patienter med en personlig eller familiær historie med medullær skjoldbruskkirtelkræft. Advarslen er »baseret på et forsigtighedsprincip«. FDA skriver, at der er foretaget løbende overvågning af Ozempic efter markedsføring, og efter tre år er der ikke fundet nogen sammenhæng mellem brugen af Ozempic og udviklingen af medullær skjoldbruskkirtelkræft eller andre former for skjoldbruskkirtelkræft.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Feb. 30 was once a real date on the calendar.
Leap years exist because Earth's orbit takes about 365.25 days, requiring an extra day every four years to keep the calendar aligned. In 1712, Sweden added an unusual February 30 to correct its inconsistent transition to the Gregorian calendar, temporarily syncing back with the Julian system. When Sweden fully adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1753, it removed 11 days from February, skipping directly from February 17 to March 1.
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Check out the Factiverse Blog
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