Not Real News
Some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the past week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.
---- Here are the facts:
<b>Claim</b>Video of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden deplaning at a Tampa, Fla., campaign stop shows him waving to an empty field.<b>The facts</b>An Associated Press reporter traveling with Biden on Tuesday confirmed he was waving to firefighters and other ground personnel outside the frame of the video. In the video, taken from a Fox News report, Biden points to his right and waves as he steps from the plane in Tampa, but only an empty field can be seen in the distance. A woman in the background of the video laughs and makes fun of Biden, yelling, “Who's he waving to? There's nobody there.”
<b>Claim</b>COVID-19 is a man-made virus intentionally manufactured in a lab and released to the public.<b>The facts</b>Scientists say the molecular structure of SARS-CoV-2 rules out the possibility that the virus was created in a lab. A draft study associated with a group founded by former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon is giving new life to false claims that the coronavirus was manufactured intentionally in a Chinese lab. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, was released last week by Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan and three colleagues. It claims to show evidence the virus did not originate in nature. The four authors list their affiliation as the Rule of Law Society, a group founded by Bannon that says its mission is “to expose corruption, obstruction, illegality, brutality, false imprisonment, excessive sentencing, harassment, and inhumanity pervasive in the political, legal, business and financial systems of China.” It is not a scientific organization.
<b>Claim</b>Maps of recent wildfires in the Pacific Northwest show the fires stop abruptly at the Canadian border.<b>The facts</b>Maps circulating on social media with this claim include only American data. Canada has its own fire mapping system, which shows there are fires burning in British Columbia, just north of the western U.S. Social media posts last week noted what seemed like a curious phenomenon: Wildfire maps show the blazes stretch across much of the western United States, but end at the Canadian border. Facebook users joked that the fires must “lack Canadian passports” and called it a “geographical oddity.” A Twitter user in Canada said he was “gratified to see” that climate change stops at the 49th parallel. “Must be that carbon tax,” he wrote. The maps were also shared by Emerald Robinson, a White House correspondent for Newsmax. “If the fires in Oregon & Washington are `climate change' then why do the fires stop at the Canadian border?” she wrote in a tweet shared nearly 4,000 times. The answer is that these maps only show American data. One map shared in several social media posts, for example, is a “USA Wildfires” map from the geographic information system software supplier Esri.
<b>Claim</b>Antifa is now carrying chainsaws, cutting down utility poles and starting more fires as wildfires rage across the Pacific Northwest.<b>The facts</b>There is no evidence that antifa activists have wielded chainsaws, cut down utility poles or started any of the fires currently spreading across Washington, Oregon and California. Public officials in the Pacific Northwest have been fighting misinformation along with deadly wildfires as a surge of false posts on social media blame the fires on antifa, short for anti-fascist, a range of far-left militant groups that oppose white supremacists.
<b>Claim</b>McDonald's removed its American flags nationwide in support of antifa and Black Lives Matter.<b>The facts</b>A McDonald's USA spokesperson confirmed this claim is not true and there is no coordinated effort to remove American flags from its restaurants. Twitter and Facebook users last week spread a false rumor about America's largest fast-food chain in posts collectively shared more than 10,000 times. “McDonald's removes their American flags in support of Antifa & BLM nationwide,” the posts read. A Facebook post added the hashtag #boycottMcDonalds. A McDonald's spokesperson told The Associated Press there is no truth to this claim. In addition, there is no evidence in news reports or other publications that any such action is being taken. The company recently published a statement on its website saying that Black lives matter and announcing donations to the National Urban League and the NAACP. It also announced a new diversity and inclusion initiative on July 30. McDonald's has not published any public statements about antifa, short for anti-fascist, an umbrella term for left-leaning militant groups that oppose white supremacists at protests.
