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

World Economic Forum did not say fashion will be abolished by 2030

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a claim that the World Economic Forum (WEF) allegedly said in a report published in 2019 that fashion would be abolished by 2030 and “humans will all wear a uniform.”

Truth:

  • Some of the posts share alleged news articles that cite a 2019 report titled “The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World” as the source of the claim.
  • The report, however, has no relation to the World Economic Forum and was, according to its own description, “co-created and co-delivered by C40, Arup and University of Leeds with funding from Arup, University of Leeds and Citi Foundation.”
  • C40 Cities is a global network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities working to fight climate change, whereas Arup is an engineering consulting firm, and Citi Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the global investment bank.
  • The full report, available on Arup's website, at no point states that fashion will be abolished by 2030 and that humans will all wear a uniform. It does, however, state that carbon emissions could be reduced if people cut down on the amount of new clothes they buy each year.

USA

Disney is not opening pediatric transgender clinics

False claim: Social media users in the United States have shared a video in which a man introducing himself at a city council meeting as Alan Bergman, the co-chairman of the entertainment division at The Walt Disney Co., makes the following statement: “We are proud to announce that this summer we will be opening Disney-themed transgender pediatric clinics for children across the country.”

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the video comes from a June 21 City Council meeting in Oceanside, California. The full video of the meeting is available on local channel KOCT TV's YouTube page.
  • The man claiming to be Alan Bergman is actually conservative YouTuber Mark Dice, who describes himself as follows on his YouTube page: “I enjoy laughing at liberal lunatics, mocking celebrity scum, and exposing the Liberal Media Industrial Complex.”
  • Dice shared the meeting video on his YouTube page on June 28, accompanied by the following description: “At a California city council meeting posing as Disney executive Alan Bergman, YouTuber Mark Dice gives a satirical speech about what the company is planning next.”

Europe

Video does not show Yevgeny Prigozhin announcing Wagner's return to frontlines

False claim: Social media users in Europe have shared a video in which Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin allegedly claims that his mercenary troops will return to the frontline in Ukraine.

“We are resting, preparing. On June 5 we left, on August 5, according to the forecasts, PMC Wagner in full combat readiness will be able to continue to fulfill those tasks that are set,” Prigozhin says in the clip.

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the video shared on social media was published on the Russian platforms Rutube and VK Video about a month ago, therefore prior to the failed mutiny initiated on June 23 by the Wagner Group against the Russian military leadership.
  • A video published on June 13, 2023 on the Russian agency UlPravda TV’s YouTube page shows Prigozhin in the same room and wearing the same clothes during a meeting with journalists on the occasion of a visit to the city of Ulyanovsk.
  • According to official reports, an alleged deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko put an end to the riot, with the Wagner group mercenaries returning to their bases and Prigozhin going into exile in Belarus. Recently, however, Lukashenko has stated that Prigozhin is not in Belarus, and the whereabouts of Wagner Group boss remain unclear.

Latin America

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has not announced Rai privatization

False claim: Social media users in Argentina have shared a claim that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had privatized public broadcaster Rai.

Truth:

  • A search of Italy's main media outlets finds no reports indicating that the Italian government has privatized, or has plans to privatize, Rai.
  • The website of the Gazzetta Ufficiale, which publishes the acts of the Italian Parliament and the decrees of the President of the Republic, also has no information about the alleged privatization of Rai.
  • Rai (acronym for Radiotelevisione italiana) is currently 99.56% owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and the remaining by the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (Società Italiana Autori ed Editori). Its current statute, available on the broadcaster's website, indicates that Rai is a “public radio, television and multimedia” service.

Australia

Data does not show sharp drop in birth rate was caused by COVID vaccines

False claim: Social media users in Australia have shared a chart showing the number of babies born per quarter in New South Wales public hospitals from March 2010 to March 2023.

According to the posts, the sharp drop seen from the second quarter of 2021 would be an effect of COVID vaccines, which “destroyed fertility.”

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the chart shared on social media originally comes from an article published on June 14, 2023 in The Sydney Morning Herald.
  • Titled “Why the state’s COVID baby boom is going bust,” the article shows, based on publicly available data from the New South Wales Bureau of Health Information, that after a peak of 19,081 births between April and June 2021, the state's public maternity wards recorded 15,868 births between January and March 2023, the lowest of any quarter since 2010.
  • Contrary to what viral posts on social media claim, the article makes no mention of COVID vaccines as the alleged cause of this drop in births. Experts consulted by the newspaper, such as demographer Liz Allen of the Australian National University in Canberra, indicate that the drop was driven by socio-economic factors.
  • A study of more than 2,000 couples conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health and published in January 2022 in the American Journal of Epidemiology have not found associations between COVID-19 vaccination and fertility, while there is evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection may temporarily reduce fertility.
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