PolitiFact is a United States fact-checking site run by the Poynter Institute. It rates claims by politicians and viral posts on its Truth-O-Meter, from True to Pants on Fire.
PolitiFact says: This claim misrepresented a 2017 Washington Post report on "fugitives from justice" being purged from the background check database for gun purchases. The report did not specify that the people removed were pedophiles.
PolitiFact says: Data shows that Judge Tanya Chutkan has been more likely to give harsher sentences to Jan. 6 defendants than other judges. But she is not the only judge who has issued sentences harsher than prosecutors requested.
PolitiFact says: We found no evidence that World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s daughter, Nicole Schwab, warned of imminent “permanent climate lockdowns.” The claim originated in an article on a known misinformation site.
PolitiFact says: Accounting entries totaling that amount that lacked adequate audit trails were detailed in government records, news reports and an official’s testimonies long before 9/11.
PolitiFact says: There is no proof that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was arrested July 25. He was in a car crash the same day but was uninjured.
PolitiFact says: Bill Nye said "the Earth is a closed system" while talking about the concept of throwing trash into space.
PolitiFact says: There is no new federal law that lets people erase unpaid debt from their credit records after only two years.
PolitiFact says: A wind turbine can produce in months, not years, more energy than was needed to manufacture it.
PolitiFact says: Florida state officials have not moved to ban COVID-19 vaccines and brand them as biological weapons. Some county Republican parties in Florida have called for such a ban.
PolitiFact says: A COVID-19-related TikTok post used a Bill Gates quote on injecting kids with genetically modified organisms out of context.
PolitiFact says: Skin cancer didn’t emerge in the last 60 years. It has been recognized by scientists since at least 1804.
PolitiFact says: A Facebook video presented as “breaking” news about an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is not new. It’s from November 2016.
PolitiFact says: Beyoncé was among 38 defendants named in a 2020 lawsuit by a woman alleging they were part of a criminal enterprise engaged in decades of abuse, including sex trafficking. The lawsuit was dismissed as "frivolous."
PolitiFact says: Netherlands’ government clearly states that a patient, not family or friends, must consent to euthanasia, and a doctor is not required to perform the procedure.
PolitiFact says: Joy Reid said on Facebook the video is a deepfake, and a CNN spokesperson confirmed that the alleged interview with Anderson Cooper did not happen.
PolitiFact says: Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has not publicly threatened to switch to the Democratic Party. A spokesperson for the senator called online claims to the contrary "misinformation spread by online bots."
PolitiFact says: A former intelligence officer testified at a congressional hearing that the U.S. has had a program to retrieve crashed Unidentified Aerial Phenomena aircraft, but he wasn't speaking for the government.
PolitiFact says: CDC data shows that, on average, heat deaths outpace deaths from floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined. But scientists say that 600 heat deaths a year is almost certainly too low.
PolitiFact says: The video shows what appears to be a van LabQ Diagnostics used for COVID-19 testing, and we found the same video shared in 2022 with text saying students were being tested for COVID-19.
PolitiFact says: President Joe Biden didn’t leave in the middle of his June 29 MSNBC interview. A 10-second clip of his exit was taken out of context; this happened at the end of the 20-minute interview.