A boat coated with ice lies at an embankment of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in 2005. A similar photo circulated online last week incorrectly asserted it showed boats covered with ice in a marina in Galveston, Texas, during the record freeze in the state. This scene was actually from Lake Geneva during a 2005 storm.

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the 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:

ClaimPhoto shows boats covered with ice in a marina in Galveston, Texas, during this week's record freeze.

The FactsAs massive storms pummeled the southern Plains with snow, sleet and freezing rain last week, leaving millions without heat or electricity, a viral photo falsely claimed to show the severity of the cold in Galveston, Texas. The image, viewed more than 100,000 times on Facebook, featured a row of boats tied to a dock and covered in a thick layer of ice. “Meanwhile in Galveston,” read one post with the image. “Galveston Texas today,” read another post Tuesday. “This is a historic pic. Wow.” However, a reverse-image search reveals the photo of the frozen boats was taken more than a decade ago, and has gone viral online several times before last week. The image was originally captured by Swiss photographer Jean-Pierre Scherrer in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2005, according to posts on PBase.com, an online photo blog. Scherrer took several pictures of frozen boats, cars and trees near Lake Geneva after an ice storm. A note from Scherrer on the photo-sharing site clarifies that his photos were indeed taken in Geneva, Switzerland, not Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, or elsewhere. Even though the image is being shared in the wrong context, it's true that severe winter weather has covered large swaths of Texas, including Galveston, in snow and ice.

ClaimPeople magazine video footage shows President Joe Biden stumped for words and unable to respond during an interview as his wife, first lady Jill Biden, looks on.

The FactsThe video was altered. The 33-second clip shows Jill Biden staring at her husband as he remains speechless. The clip began circulating on Feb. 14 and had amassed almost a million views by Tuesday. It was later taken down. The altered segment was taken from a Feb. 3 interview where the first couple discuss their marriage and first days in the White House. The video edited together close-ups of Biden to make it seem as though he was at a loss for words. The manipulated footage includes the words “not to be shown to public” across the bottom, which falsely suggests it was a behind-the-scenes clip. “The video posted on these twitter links were copied, altered and manipulated from PEOPLE's video interview with the President and First Lady which originally ran on February 3, 2021,” Marnie Perez, a spokeswoman for People, said in an email. Social media users shared posts with the altered video on Facebook and Twitter. “The Commander-in-Chief, ladies and gentlemen.,” one post with more than 9,000 likes on Twitter said. Another caption with the altered video said, “biden's reaction to Trump's acquittal.” The official video from People can be found on the magazine's website and on YouTube.

ClaimWind turbines freezing over in the cold weather were primarily responsible for Texans losing heat and electricity last week.

The FactsFailures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels combined, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's power grid, said in a news conference Tuesday. With millions of Texas residents without power this week amid frigid temperatures, some government officials and conservative commentators falsely claimed that wind turbines and solar energy were the main culprits. “We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. “The experiment failed big time.” A viral photo of a helicopter deicing a wind turbine was shared with claims it showed a “chemical” solution being applied to one of the massive wind generators in Texas. The only problem? The photo was taken in Sweden years ago, not in the U.S. in 2021. The helicopter sprayed hot water onto the wind turbine, not chemicals. Natural gas and coal provide the bulk of electricity in Texas, “and that's the bulk of the cause of the blackouts,” according to Mark Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. While Texas has ramped up wind energy in recent years, the state still relies on wind power for only about 25% of its total electricity, according to ERCOT data.

ClaimIn 2016, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted, “I'll believe in climate change when Texas freezes over.”

The FactsThe tweet is fabricated. It cannot be found on Cruz's verified Twitter account, nor is it on websites that track deleted tweets by public officials. The phony tweet spread on social media last week following an uproar over a trip the Republican senator took to Cancun, Mexico, while Texans grappled with a deadly winter storm. The crisis was held up as evidence that as climate change worsens, government officials need to do more to prepare for more extreme weather. Multiple Facebook and Twitter users reposted the false tweet, noting that perhaps Cruz changed his stance on climate change after experiencing the abnormal subfreezing temperatures in Texas.