Your weekly fact-checks
#Business
Missing Context: DuckDuckGo has a deal with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to track its search-engine users
Users are sharing an outdated story without the context that DuckDuckGo has eliminated a gap in its tracker-blocking feature that previously allowed some Microsoft tracking scripts on third-party websites to load. (Source: Reuters)
Mostly-True: "Latino small businesses are 1 in 4 new businesses, but only 1% of venture capital funding goes to Latino businesses."
Latino small businesses account for 1 in 4 new businesses, according to a 2021 brief from Democratic members of a congressional committee and research from a nonprofit. A 2021 report from a consulting firm found that from 2007 to 2017, Latino-owned businesses received roughly 1% of funding from the top 25 venture capitalists and private equity firms. (Source: PolitiFact)
False: Video shows Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion in a health care fraud settlement involving COVID-19 vaccines.
In 2009, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion for fraudulent marketing of an anti-inflammatory drug called Bextra. The settlement came more than a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic. (Source: PolitiFact)
#Climate
Misleading: More than 24,000 people in India died from 2023 heatwave
A video has been viewed millions of times after it was shared in Facebook, Instagram and TikTok posts that falsely claim that a heatwave that hit India in 2023 has killed over 24,000 people. But the figure actually represents the total number of heatstroke deaths in the South Asian country between 1992 and 2015. (Source: Agence France-Presse - AFP)
Misleading: Australia Bureau of Meteorology doctored temperature data
Misleading posts from several politicians, climate sceptics and social media users downplay global heating by accusing Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) of inaccurately recording temperature data. But the BOM's temperature measurements are consistent with global standards, according to the World Meteorological Organization. (Source: Agence France-Presse - AFP)
#Nordics
Dette Er Feil: Sammenhengen mellom klima og CO₂ har aldri blitt bevist.
Sammenhengen er bevist gjentatte ganger og er grunnleggende for all vitenskapelig forståelse av klimaet på jorden. (Source: Faktisk)
Dette Er Feil: Det er solas aktivitet i kombinasjon med jordas bane og bevegelser som styrer klimaendringene. Ikke menneskelige utslipp.
Sola har de siste årene holdt lavere aktivitet enn vanlig og kan ikke stå bak klimaendringene. Det kan heller ikke ha med jordas bane å gjøre, til det går klimaendringene for fort. (Source: Faktisk)
#Other
True: The Wright brothers took flight for the first time the same year The New York Times published an editorial speculating it could take 1 to 10 million years to develop a successful flying machine.
Social media posts have claimed that the Wright Brothers took flight for the first time the same year The New York Times published an article about it potentially taking 10 million years to develop a successful flying machine. (Source: Snopes)
True: Former President John F. Kennedy said, “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
For years, social media users have shared a statement about entrusting Americans with "unpleasant facts" purportedly spoken by former President John F. Kennedy. The quote is correctly attributed to JFK. The quote can be found on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's website. (Source: Snopes)
False: Women aged over 55 are the largest group experiencing homelessness.
The claim women over 55 are the largest group experiencing homelessness is false. Men aged 25-34 are the largest homeless cohort, 2021 Census data shows. The claim older women are the fastest-growing homeless demographic is also incorrect. The latest data shows the fastest-growing groups experiencing homelessness are women aged 35-44 and children. (Source: Australian Associated Press - AAP)
True: King Charles' scepter, which he held at his coronation on May 6, 2023, contains a piece of a controversial diamond known as the Great Star of Africa.
Controversy surrounds the diamond, which critics of the royal family say was "stolen" from South Africa during the colonial era; the British reject that accusation. (Source: Snopes)
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