The Journal FactCheck
A project by @thejournal.ie to tackle misinformation in Ireland.
Heard something dodgy? Email factcheck@thejournal.ie or WhatsApp us on +353 83 876 0971.
- Some people have taken the opportunity to spread false allegations about notable figures in Irish public life, including U2 singer Bono, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and former justice minister Alan Shatter. jrnl.ie/6946548
- A puzzling statement, made by an official X account for US Republican lawmakers, has falsely claimed that the EU had “fined X €45 million after concluding people would think Donald Duck was a real person". jrnl.ie/6943169
- An anti-immigration campaigner has posted a picture that appears to show a dinghy boat full of men with light-brown skin drinking cans of beer on the River Liffey as Dublin floods. jrnl.ie/6941520
- A book published in 1989 is said to show plans for a conspiracy to use Covid-19 and 5G radiation to kill large amounts of people and cause anarchy. However, multiple anachronisms show these claims to be fake. jrnl.ie/6939552
- A baseless claim continues to spread that Jamie Oliver won a “legal battle” with McDonald’s by proving that the company's food was not fit for human consumption. jrnl.ie/6938879
- Claims that the President of the European Central Bank is planning to outlaw cash transactions over €1,000 appear to confuse rules already in force regarding large cash transactions in the EU, French laws, and limits on cryptocurrency trading. jrnl.ie/6936097
- Clips of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaking have been spread widely along with false captions claiming that she is saying that the EU migration treaty is “a betrayal of Europeans”. The footage was filmed in 2018, before the pact existed. jrnl.ie/6933655
- Donald Trump claimed in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today that the United States has never asked its Nato allies for anything. jrnl.ie/6933728
- Claims that Greenland would “bypass” Denmark to negotiate a possible annexation with the US government directly either have no source, or are misrepresenting out-of-context comments by an opposition party. jrnl.ie/6931622
- “An AI machine which, in response to a user's prompt, creates any response — be it in text or image format — is legally responsible for the publication of that content," one legal expert told The Journal. jrnl.ie/6927689t
- The Journal spoke with experts in the law for their opinions on which (if any) laws were broken in the Grok-X AI image scandal, who is legally liable, and whether new legislation is needed. jrnl.ie/6927689
- Remigration is the name given to a white nationalist plan to ethnically cleanse Western countries of non-white people. It's been referred to in numerous official US government statements, including some made by Donald Trump.
- Fake images of Sinn Féin activists dressed as Orangemen, covered with ash in a warzone, waving the English flag, and attending an LGBT+ Pride parade wearing sparkling shirts and a harness, have spread online. jrnl.ie/6923859
- False claims Bill Gates had written an article titled “Depopulation Through Forced Vaccination: The Zero Carbon Solution" continue to spread online despite being long-debunked. jrnl.ie/6920501
- AI-generated footage and old videos of military operations, protests and celebrations, have spread across the internet In the wake of the US capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. jrnl.ie/6919368
- An image titled “Why You Should Skip the Flu Shot” falsely says that death is a side effect of the vaccine and has spread online despite containing verifiably false claims. jrnl.ie/6907902
- False claims that Enoch Burke has been given a "life sentence" for his religious beliefs have spread widely in recent weeks, both in Ireland and abroad.
- A bill to amend abortion legislation that was rejected in the Dáil on Wednesday has caused considerable controversy online, with many commentators saying it would have removed all limits on women who choose to terminate their pregnancy. jrnl.ie/6911113
- A shooting Sydney, Australia, on Sunday left 15 people dead. In the hours that followed, false claims were widely shared online about the suspects, a man who heroically intervened to stop the shooting, as well as numerous conspiracy theories. jrnl.ie/6904350
- Social media accounts filled with antisemitic posts are spreading false claims about historical figures online, including that Anne Frank's diaries were faked. jrnl.ie/6902169
- Over the long term, and up until this year, the proportion of butter imported by the US that comes from Ireland it much lower than that, although it still makes up a large part. jrnl.ie/6897868
- Irish butter, and Kerrygold in particular, is popular with people in the US because of its high quality, high fat content and the fact that it's widely available in American supermarkets. jrnl.ie/6897868
- Irish government donations to Ukraine amount to hundreds of millions of Euro, including supplies of non-lethal equipment, but not “billions”, as a former political candidate has claimed. jrnl.ie/6897030
- A video complaining about immigration into Ireland starts off by making the false claim that diagnoses of HIV are up 75 per cent this year in Ireland. jrnl.ie/6894307
- Claims that jailed former teacher Enoch Burke has been sentenced to “life” in prison for his beliefs have spread internationally, despite Burke being free to leave prison by simply affirming he will no longer illegally trespass at a school. jrnl.ie/6894680
- It's been almost four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine but the steady stream of disinformation about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not dried up. jrnl.ie/6891312
- False claims about 15-minute cities, including that they are “concentration camps” have been reshared in the wake of a fatal fire in Hong Kong. jrnl.ie/6891193
- A map that purports to show how many Muslims are living in large regions of the world uses figures that are not backed up by official data. This results in an overestimate of the number of Muslims in the world by hundreds of millions. jrnl.ie/6890875
- A court judgement about religious education in Northern Ireland has been described, falsely, as being a ban on Christianity in schools. jrnl.ie/6888382
- Elon Musk's Grokipedia gets some basic facts wrong and presents racist conspiracy theories as legitimate ideas with "empirical underpinnings". youtube.com/shorts/m4-nq...
- In the wake of Enoch Burke’s latest arrest, an old and long-debunked claim suggested that his trouble with the law stems from his refusal to “endorse transgender ideology” or to refer to a trans student by their preferred pronouns. jrnl.ie/6887268
- Statements uttered by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in which he endorses a number of conspiracy theories have been shared widely, despite containing verifiably false statements including that a German lawyer was put in jail to shut him up. jrnl.ie/6885302
- A false claim that one in every ten people in Co Kerry is now Ukrainian has spread online since being posted by an anti-immigration activist. jrnl.ie/6884027
- News of tragic deaths on Irish roads has been met by some who have mistakenly blamed fatalities on an unusual target: environmental policies. jrnl.ie/6882036
- The website, whose content is all AI-generated, is supposed to be a counter-balance to what Musk and other prominent figures on the American right say is Wikipedia’s “left-biased” content. jrnl.ie/6870800
- Alongside biases shown in descriptions of racist conspiracy theories, Grokipedia contains some straightforward factual errors - including misnaming the alleged attacker in the Parnell Square stabbing of 2023. jrnl.ie/6870800
- A video shared on social media appears to show a teacher leading a classroom full of schoolchildren, each kneeling on their own mat, in Islamic prayer during a class. The footage, however, is fake and created by Artificial Intelligence. jrnl.ie/6874547
- A video criticising benefits given to Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion begins by saying that there are “over 100,000 Ukrainians in Ireland now”. This is not true. jrnl.ie/6872419
- A dramatic video said to show an explosion in Tralee, Co Kerry, was generated by artificial intelligence and has been shared online. jrnl.ie/6871440
- During a speech in the Dáil, accusing the government of not taking climate change seriously enough, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said that Ireland"had more energy generated from wind 20 years ago". Is this true? jrnl.ie/6869897b
- In the wake of an alleged arson attack at a centre for asylum seekers, anti-immigration activists have labelled the attack a “false flag” operation, while one website instead characterised the attack as “calculated resistance” by “local patriots”. jrnl.ie/6863661t
- Claims that an escaped lion had been reported to the Gardaí spread widely on social media and chat apps this week, along with a video showing an indistinct beast roaming through the woods. jrnl.ie/6861750
- Since the alleged sexual assault of a young girl in Saggart, Dublin, a wave of online criticism has been directed at the media and courts for not naming the suspect. But it's not a conspiracy, it's the law.
- In the wake of a presidential election, some online commentators have spread false claims about the number of votes that had been purposely spoiled, and what that represented. jrnl.ie/6861472
- An AI-generated video ad fraudulently promoting a financial scheme features faked, though convincing, images of journalists Sharon Ní Bheoláin and Fintan O’Toole, as well as Tánaiste Simon Harris. jrnl.ie/6860505
- Social media users have falsely claimed that Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman invited asylum seekers to come to Ireland – a gross distortion of some of his old social media posts. jrnl.ie/6859122b
- As ballots are being counted across Ireland today, fringe figures online are celebrating the high number of votes that were spoiled in the election. Some point to the number of spoiled votes as evidence the election result is illegitimate. jrnl.ie/6855692
- In the wake of court appearances this week in relation to the alleged sexual assault of a young girl in Citywest, Dublin, a wave of online criticism has been levelled at the media and courts for not naming the suspect. jrnl.ie/6854552t
- What looks like Sharon Ní Bheoláin speaks to camera. "Catherine Connolly has confirmed her withdrawal from the presidential race," it says. But the video, and others like it, is fake – created by AI. jrnl.ie/6850517b
