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 are some of the most shared false claims of this week, of which none are legit.

World

Pictures of Elon Musk with “robot wives” are AI-generated

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a series of pictures of Elon Musk accompanied by alleged “robot wives.” “Robot Wife will use batteries that require charging for three full days and operate for a month,” reads the caption of some of the posts, according to which the product will be launched by the end of this year.

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the pictures that have gone viral on social media were originally posted on May 3, 2023 by a Facebook account called Guerrero Art.
  • In his post, made on a Facebook group page called AI Art Universe, the user shares the specific prompts he used to digitally create the images.
  • Guerrero Art, who describes himself on his page as a “digital creator,” regularly shares AI-generated images on his Instagram account (@art_is_2_inspire) and uses hashtags such as #ai, #aiartwork and #aicommunity. In reply to a comment on one of his posts, he indicated that the images are created using Midjourney, an AI tool that allows images to be generated using text prompts.
  • A web search finds no reliable evidence that Elon Musk, or any of his companies, are developing or planning to launch “robot wives.”

USA

Video does not show boxes full of banned books in Florida school

False claim: Social media users in the United States have shared a video in which a staff member at McNicol Middle School in Hollywood, Florida, claims that thousands of books from the school library were seized by state authorities after being deemed “inappropriate.” In the footage, which shows large cardboard boxes filled with books in a hallway, the employee shows, accompanied by two other colleagues, titles such as “Hispanic American, Texas and the Mexican War,” “Black Eagles: African Americans in Aviation” and “The Double Life of Pocahontas.”

Truth:

  • The video shared on social media was originally posted on TikTok by @psychiea, which belongs to Allison Ronis, an information technology specialist at McNicol Middle School
  • In a post on Twitter on May 22, 2023 John Sullivan, chief communications and legislative affairs officer for Broward County Public Schools, said that the information shared in the viral video is false and that “the school shown in the video was updating/refreshing its book inventory.” In a statement to AP, Sullivan explained that 89% of the library collection was more than 15 years old and that the action taken was to “ensure the material is current and up-to-date.”
  • Ronis later deleted his video from TikTok, and in a new post on May 24 claimed that the books were not banned, but that they were being taken away because they were outdated.
  • The false claim comes amid a recent move by Florida legislators, endorsed by governor Ron DeSantis, to pass laws making it easier to crack down on the teaching of racial and gender issues in public schools.
  • In a report published on April 20, 2023 PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to defend free expression, states that 357 titles have been banned in Florida between July and December 2022.
  • In a press release issued on March 8, 2023 DeSantis stated that 23 districts had removed 175 titles whose content had been “identified as pornographic, violent, or inappropriate for their grade level.”

Europe

UK and EU are not offering citizenship in exchange for Ukraine military service

False claim: Social media users in Europe have shared an ad posted on job search platform Adzuna inviting “citizens from the Middle East and North Africa to participate in a voluntary program to assist Ukraine” in exchange for “accelerated citizenship in the UK or EU.”

Truth:

  • In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for the UK Home Office said that the ad circulating on social media “is a fake and scam.”
  • “This is not an EU sponsored or originated campaign and is most likely an attempt to mislead people since it is bearing hallmarks of a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Ukraine and the European Union,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said in a note to the fact-checking website Check Your Fact.

United Kingdom

COVID-19 vaccine recently authorized in Britain is not sprayed from aircraft

False claim: Social media users in the United Kingdom have shared the claim that the South Korean COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovion recently authorised in Britain is administered by spraying it into the sky from an aircraft.

“UK government officially approved a plan to force vaccinate the entire nation through the air we breathe,” reads the caption of one of the viral posts.

Truth:

  • Developed by South Korean biotechnology company SK bioscience in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), SKYCovion was authorised by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on May 26 after meeting the regulator’s standards for safety, quality and effectiveness.
  • According to information about SKYCovion posted on the UK government website, “the vaccine is for intramuscular injection only, preferably in the deltoid muscle of the upper arm.”
  • The claims circulating on the web appear to be based on a misinterpretation of the vaccine's name, which contains the word “SKY.” SK bioscience, however, already uses “SKY” in the names of other vaccines, including a flu vaccine (SKYCellflu) and a chickenpox vaccine (SKYVaricella).

Latin America

It is false that “leaked” WHO document reveals plan to force children to have sexual partners

False claim: Social media users in Latin America have shared an article claiming that an allegedly leaked World Health Organization (WHO) document reveals a plan to force children to have sexual partners.

Truth:

  • First, the article shared on social media was posted by a website famous for publishing misinformation and promoting conspiracy theories.
  • The article misrepresents information from the “International Technical Guidance on Sexual Education” report, developed by WHO in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and UN Women.
  • Contrary to what social media posts suggest, the document was not “leaked,” having been published in several languages in January 2018, including in English. The report does not suggest that children should be forced to have sexual partners.
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