It’s August and it is worth recapping some of the main Fake News stories of the first 8 months of the year.
From new topics, such as China that has not reclassified Coca Cola as a cleaning product, to old favorites, like the COVID pandemic or climate change, there was no shortage of attempts on social media to mislead unwary internet users about the top stories in the news.
Please send us Fake News tips or claims to check at this email: factcheck@blastingnews.com or at this BlueSky account @bnfactcheck.bsky.social: Read this page for our submission guidelines.
Check out below 4 of the most important false claims that have been debunked by our team.
1. US government data has not shown “143,233% surge” in cancer among vaccinated people
False claim: Social media users have shared an alleged news article claiming that US government data revealed a “143,233% surge in fatal cancer cases linked to COVID vaccinations”.
Truth:
- An internet search shows that the information shared on social media was originally published on August 16, 2022 by the British website The Exposé, famous for promoting anti-vaccine content and conspiracy theories about the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. The site published the same content again on December 8, 2023.
- The article claims that the connection between COVID-19 vaccines and an alleged surge in cancer cases can be found in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
- The VAERS website, however, informs that anyone can include information in the database – including health professionals, vaccine manufacturers and the general public – and makes the following disclaimer: “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Reports to VAERS can also be biased. As a result, there are limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.”
- There is no information on the CDC website about any link between COVID-19 vaccines and an alleged surge in cancer cases. The agency, however, reinforces that the approved COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective.”
- The American Cancer Society informs on its website that “there is no information that suggests that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer” and that “there is also no information that suggests these vaccines can make cancer grow or recur.”
2. China has not reclassified Coca-Cola as a cleaning product
False claim: Social media users in Spain and Latin America have shared a claim that the government of China has recently banned the sale of Coca-Cola in the country for human consumption and reclassified the drink as a “cleaning product.” The posts are accompanied by a text claiming that the changes, supposedly carried out by the “Chinese Central Committee for Food Quality,” took place after a “scientific study,” which followed a group of 500 inmates in the country over six months, showed that 75 of them died after ingesting the drink three times a day during the period.
Truth:
- An internet search shows that the claim was originally published on August 15, 2018 in an article on a Russian website called Panorama. Titled “Coca-Cola will be sold as a drain cleaner in China,” the article has the same text about the alleged “scientific study” carried out with the drink in China.
- The website, however, is satirical. In a section called “Warning,” Panorama includes the following disclaimer: “All texts on this site are grotesque parodies of reality and are not real news.”
- A search on the official websites of the Chinese government, including its Ministry of Health, does not turn up any results about the alleged ban on Coca-Cola for human consumption and its reclassification as a cleaning product. The same search on the website of China's state-run Xinhua agency also turns up nothing.
False claim: As the Kansas City Chiefs secured their spot in Super Bowl LVIII, right-wing political and media figures started to share the claim that this year’s NFL's championship game is rigged to benefit the Democrats in November’s presidential election.
The relationship between Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce and pop singer Taylor Swift was used as an alleged evidence of that. “I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months,” former Republican presidential candidate and Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy posted on his X account on January 29.
Truth:
- Named by Time magazine as 2023 person of the year, Taylor Swift is currently one of the world's most influential celebrities. After declaring her support for Democratic candidates in the 2018 elections and for Joe Biden in 2020, the artist has become a frequent target of conspiracy theories from the American far right.
- On January 9, for example, Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested that Swift was a Pentagon “psy-op” asset who is using her fan base to drum up support for Biden. Asked about the issue the following day, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told Politico: “As for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off,” referencing one of Swift's biggest hits.
- Two-time Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce also became the target of attacks from the American right after starring last September in an ad promoting the double dose of the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Kansas City Chiefs secured their spot in this year’s Super Bowl – their second straight Super Bowl appearance and fourth in the last five years – after defeating the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday. “Today we weren't good enough. We didn't win the game. Congratulations to the Chiefs, they won the game,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the game.
False claim: During a rally on March 2 in Greensboro, North Carolina, former President Donald Trump claimed that a recent poll indicated that 82% of Americans think the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
“What happened at that last election is a disgrace, and we're not going to let it happen again,” Trump said during the event.
Truth:
- An internet search shows that there is no recent poll that corroborates Trump's statement that 82% of Americans believe the 2020 election was rigged.
- Among the most recent surveys, one carried out last December by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland indicates that 36% of respondents believe that Biden's victory was illegitimate. A similar result was presented by a poll conducted last August by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, according to which “seven in 10 [respondents] say that Biden was legitimately elected president (...) But among Republicans, 57% say Biden's election was illegitimate.”
- Since Trump's defeat at the end of 2020, the only survey that comes close to the former president's statement is a poll conducted in 2021 by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a public opinion research firm, according to which 82% of Republican voters who said they trust Fox News more than any other media outlet believed the election was stolen from Trump. Among all the people surveyed, regardless of their political orientation, this figure fell to 31%.
- Ever since he was defeated at the polls by Joe Biden, Trump has been peddling the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged. In more than 60 lawsuits challenging the outcome of the election, the former president and his allies have failed to prove any irregularity.
