The most shared fake news from around the globe, curated by Blasting News’ editorial team.

We are monitoring social media, national and international media, and fact-checking websites in order to share the Fake News making the rounds each week. Don't be fooled!

The world of news is complex – and false stories and images are often widely shared on social media. Blasting News’s editorial team spots the most popular hoaxes and misleading information every week to help you discern truth from falsehood. Here is some of the most popular fake news of the week from around the world.

Please send us fake news tips or claims to check at this email: factcheck@blastingnews.com or at this X/Twitter account @BNFactCheck.

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Biden was not arrested as kid standing with black family while white protested against desegregation

False news: President Joe Biden recently claimed during a Howard Stern interview that he was arrested as a child for standing with a black family on their porch during a protest against desegregation. This story, however, has been widely circulated and scrutinized, with no evidence found to support the claim.

This is not the first time: Biden recounted this story in 2018 explaining why he decided to join the Barack Obama campaign as a vice president.

Truth:

  • Investigations by reputable news organizations and fact-checking entities have not uncovered any historical records or witness testimonies that corroborate Biden's story of being arrested under such circumstances.
  • The narrative of Biden’s arrest during a desegregation protest lacks verification from any police records or news reports from the time, which would typically document such a significant event.
  • The White House did not respond to different requests to clarify this episode.

Tyson food did not put insects into products

False news: social media posts claim that Tyson Foods has started incorporating insects as ingredients in its consumer food products, suggesting that such ingredients are listed on product labels following FDA approval.

Truth:

  • Tyson Foods has clarified that they do not use insect protein in any food products intended for human consumption.
  • The confusion may stem from Tyson Foods' partnership with Protix, an insect-ingredient supplier. However, this collaboration focuses on producing insect proteins and lipids primarily for use in pet food, aquaculture, and livestock feed—not for human food products.
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does allow certain levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods, which can include insects, but these are not the same as approved ingredients specifically added to food products.
  • The European Union approved human consumption of four different insects.

NASA didn’t observe city lights on a distant planet

False news: A viral video on social media claims that NASA discovered city lights on a distant planet, located 7 trillion miles away.

This statement led to widespread sharing and speculation about evidence of extraterrestrial life.

  • A NASA spokesperson has officially refuted these claims, confirming that no discovery of city lights on any distant planet has been made. The agency emphasizes that such a discovery has not occurred.
  • The actual scientific finding related to this claim involved a brown dwarf observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. This observation revealed unexpected infrared emissions due to atmospheric phenomena, not city lights. The findings were related to natural processes similar to auroras found on planets within our solar system.
  • The purported distance of the planet in the viral claim was also misrepresented. The brown dwarf discussed in the NASA article is approximately 47 light-years away from Earth, equating to far more than 7 trillion miles, with a single light-year itself being about 5.8 trillion miles.

This abandoned McDonalds near Chernobyl is AI generated

False news: a photo circulating online claimed to depict an abandoned McDonald's restaurant near Chernobyl in Pripyat, Ukraine.

The image, characterized by its brutalist architectural style, suggested that this was a remnant of the area affected by the nuclear disaster.

Truth:

  • The viral image of the supposed McDonald's near Chernobyl is actually a digitally created piece of artwork. The original poster on X (formerly Twitter) later admitted that the image was generated using an AI tool, specifically mentioning it as an "obvious AI image."

  • The creator of the image, a Reddit user known as Agentcooper1974, used the Midjourney AI platform to produce the image as part of a series exploring brutalist fast food restaurants in Eastern Europe and Russia. This confirms the image's fictional nature and its artistic origins.

  • The first McDonald's restaurant in Russia didn't open until 1990, nearly four years after the Chernobyl disaster, as reported by CNN. Additionally, the first McDonald's in Ukraine opened even later, in 1997, according to Fandom.com.

The flier that ask migrants to vote for Biden is fabricated

False news: The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, shared images of a flier written in Spanish bearing its logo, which was allegedly found in a migrant camp and encouraged immigrants to vote for President Biden to ensure four more years of his administration.

Truth:

  • The authenticity of the flier is highly questionable as Gaby Zavala, the founder of the Resource Center Matamoros, identified it as a crude fake, noting that the phone number listed was outdated and the language was poorly translated using software. Additionally, the timing and the context of the flier's appearance are suspicious, coinciding with the visit of known provocateurs, the Rubin brothers, who have a history of creating misleading content around immigration issues.

  • Experts and those familiar with migrant camps quickly dismissed the flier's legitimacy. The Associated Press pointed out the flier's poor translation and grammatical errors, and various charities working with migrants expressed doubts about ever seeing such a document. The narrative pushed by the flier aligns too conveniently with debunked theories and political agendas, undermining its credibility.
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