“Tariff problems, a sudden attack,” reads simplified Chinese sticker text on an April 11 Douyin video of a man appearing to walk on stage behind Trump, hit him, and walk away as Trump ducks and Secret Service agents rush up to protect him.
Society
Climate change deniers are pushing an AI-generated paper questioning human-induced warming, leading experts to warn against the rise of research that is inherently flawed but marketed as neutral and scrupulously logical.
“BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP STRIKES BACK — DEATH PENALTY FOR mRNA CRIMES NOW ON THE TABLE”, reads the headline of a lengthy Facebook post published on February 26, 2025.
New scientific research claims ocean currents are “stable,” states Anthony Watts in a February 28, 2025 article on his website.
“BREAKING: Ukraine ‘soldiers’ have resorted to faking combat in order to appear ‘war torn’ so the slush fund from the U.S. keeps churning money their way!” says a March 1, 2025 X post with thousands of interactions.
A common theme among spreaders of disinformation is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a Nazi or that he embezzles Western aid intended for Ukraine. In the past, disinformation spreaders have falsely claimed that he bought a former mansion of Joseph Goebbels, two luxury yachts or even Adolf Hitler’s Mercedes.
The fabricated Time magazine cover was shared on X on February 10, 2025.
In his latest push to undo environmental goals established by the Biden-Harris Administration since returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order (archived here) pushing for a return to plastic drinking straws, saying their impact on marine life was limited.
“RFK Jr. is correct about Lyme disease being created as a bioweapon in a lab on Plum Island, just off Connecticut’s coast,” says a January 29, 2025 X post from an account called “Shadow of Ezra,” which AFP previously fact-checked.
“According to Al-Jazeera, this house belongs to a Muslim and this is the only house that survived the fire in Los Angeles,” read part of the caption to an Instagram post that shared the picture on January 13, 2025.