The Journal FactCheck

Do you want to get ahead of fake news before it reaches you? Every month, our FactCheck team sends a newsletter that analyses what’s true, false or somewhere in the middle from the worlds of news and politics, and in online spaces. jrnl.ie/6666854

Jim O’Callaghan deepened the row over legal aid reform this week when he suggested that only rape cases were deliberately in the Central Criminal Court on Monday. But what does the available evidence tell us about the cases affected? www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-ra...

Updated projections for the impact of climate change have prompted the fake story that the United Nations has “admitted” that climate change is a hoax. jrnl.ie/7201704

A woman banned by Australian authorities from giving health advice encouraged cancer sufferers to spurn chemotherapy at an alternative medicine event held near Drogheda last Thursday. jrnl.ie/7195606

As teacher's began industrial action last week, the leader of INTO claimed that Irish primary school teachers spend more time working with pupils than anywhere else in the world. What does the data say? jrnl.ie/7191615

A graph shared widely online with the claim it showed a drastic reduction in online activity related to a far-right German political party, following the bombing of Russian data centres last week, is not authentic. jrnl.ie/7195395

Public sector unions say their workers' pay has not matched inflation in recent years, but the government has claimed otherwise. Who is right?

A video of a Nigerian woman eating food has been shared widely, along with claims that wrongly suggest she is an asylum seeker living off the government. The video is a piece of satire, made by a woman in response to racist assumptions about her. jrnl.ie/7188399

The death of a woman who worked at a Russian laboratory where plague is studied has led to rampant speculation and conspiracist claims online. One of the conspiracy theories attempts to link the development of a vaccine by scientists in Israel to the death of the woman in Russia. jrnl.ie/7187938

FactCheck: Three claims from opposition TDs who criticised this year's budget

A Facebook group promoting the harvesting of peat as fuel to burn has made misleading claims implying turf is environmentally friendly. jrnl.ie/7180890

One claim shared on X, and seen hundreds of thousands of times, is that the incident was a joint Indian-Israeli intelligence operation conducted with the aim of putting the blame on Iran. jrnl.ie/7180572

Ongoing tensions over a proposed Orange Order march in Portadown, Co Armagh, have led to misinformation online. This includes claims by fringe commentators that the march was a purposeful tactic to stop people talking about immigration. jrnl.ie/7178008

Michelle O’Neill’s presence at the Garvaghy Road protest has prompted the leader of the DUP to condemn her for allegedly breaking the law — an accusation that could threaten their shaky Stormont power-sharing arrangement. jrnl.ie/7177106t

Multiple social media posts are congratulating a Danish "anti-Islamic migration" political party on gains made during the 21 September election. The only problem? Denmark hasn’t had an election since March. jrnl.ie/7170457

Claims that a group of foreign men were arrested at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City for “waving a gun around” are false. jrnl.ie/7168866

Posts falsely claim that billionaire philanthropist George Soros was a Nazi and that he “owns” Antifa. jrnl.ie/7164108

False claims that the public is being “left in the dark” about rapes and sexual assaults due to the government creating new laws that enforce “media blackouts” have spread online. jrnl.ie/7164610

Donald Trump made a series of claims during his Ireland visit - about Irish pharma firms, investment in the US, diesel shortages and $5,000 payments to Americans. We examined the evidence behind each jrnl.ie/7162249t

Videos that purportedly show Mark Zuckerberg saying that water will run out in the following year, killing humanity, are AI-generated fakes. jrnl.ie/7162606

Pictures that appear to show the deceased child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein speaking to the President of the European Commission are AI-generated. jrnl.ie/7152731

While the internet is filled with arguments denying the effects of farming on climate change, it is worth delving into one argument that methane from cow herds is harmless, as featured in a video whose popularity has endured online.

A video of an airsoft rifle taken outside a takeaway in a Tallaght industrial estate became the basis for false claims about foreigners “coming over here to kill us”. jrnl.ie/7149897

AI-generated footage been posted online where it has been captioned with false claims that it shows the recent floods in Nepal and Tibet. jrnl.ie/7148762

Posts spread online falsely claim that the United Kingdom will be accommodating thousands of migrants who stormed the borders of a Spanish enclave in North Africa last month. jrnl.ie/7143854

“During meetings, platform representatives often appeared unfamiliar with the context of the unfolding election,” the report on misinformation in Ireland reads. “Many were unable to articulate the rationale for content-moderation decisions.” jrnl.ie/7139970

A story shared on social media that a Cork woman who was invited to smell a woman’s perfume and later woke up to find she had been robbed is a copy of an internet rumour. jrnl.ie/7142689

Social media companies failed to act on the vast majority of electoral disinformation reported by researchers ahead of last year’s presidential election, a new report shows. jrnl.ie/7139970

Old videos have been reused, falsely purporting to show thousands of migrants again overrunning the borders of Ceuta. This footage was actually taken in July. jrnl.ie/7137206

Dublin Bus did hire nearly 100 drivers from South Africa, but not as part of an equality drive. They hired qualified, professional drivers from a country that drives on the left to tackle a driver shortage. jrnl.ie/7135564

The methane from ruminant animals is widely considered to be a significant source of greenhouse gases, though there are real controversies over how exactly this should be measured. jrnl.ie/7133647

A misquoted conversation from a live-streamed podcast has been used to falsely claim that an academic that advises the government on racism argued that the Irish language should be abandoned. jrnl.ie/7131102

While the thrust of the government's documents focus on battling institutional sexism, the strategy does include one cautionary description of tradwives. jrnl.ie/7128792

The international economics group, the OECD, has agreed to remove a misleading statistic they published which stated that tourist numbers to Ireland fell by 32% between 2019 and 2025. jrnl.ie/7124318

After the doctor who led the responses against the Covid pandemic in America was brought before a Senate hearing, false claims were shared by an Irish commentator that he had said that Covid was just the common flu. jrnl.ie/7124640

Images of tens of thousands of people crossing from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta prompted plenty of reactions on line, but not all of them were based in fact. For the full story, visit The Journal's FactCheck section.

Conflicting false statements, largely pushed by far-right activists, have exaggerated narratives about the Spanish government’s response to the migrant crisis in Ceuta. jrnl.ie/7118858

Gardaí said they were investigating an assault in an lane where small mosque has been the target of intimidation. jrnl.ie/7117910

A real-life incident in which a man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” mid-air appears to have been the basis of a fake story featuring AI-generated images. jrnl.ie/7116350

Misleading maps and false stats are spread by the far-right to manufacture a crisis. They are intended to scare people into feeling that Ireland is changing so fast that they can’t keep up. jrnl.ie/7108860

Post about a Medical Council hearing for Patrick Morrissey, a doctor who said that he prescribed unproven treatments for Covid patients during the pandemic, are filled with misinformation. jrnl.ie/7112282

False claims been shared online that Covid deaths were actually caused by drugs and mechanical ventilation. Although the claim has been spread by Irish people, these claims cite a "whistleblower" nurse who is American and did not work in Ireland jrnl.ie/7103685

Claims that Russia had taken large swaths of ground in Ukraine are based on a mapping group’s analysis that actually came to the opposite conclusion. jrnl.ie/7101083

The rhetoric around a European parliament vote to allow tech companies to monitor online chats in an effort to clamp down on child abuse has been so extreme that it’s not always clear that opposing sides are discussing the same thing. jrnl.ie/7097705

A video that appears to show former taoiseach Leo Varadkar complaining about immigrants uses real footage, but swaps out the audio and subtitles to deceive viewers into thinking he is saying something else. jrnl.ie/7096180

False claims that Irish political leaders had visited the island of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have circulated online in a faked document that purports to be official government correspondence. jrnl.ie/7095052

With Europe sweltering in a heatwave this summer, climate sceptics are trying to push the idea that the recent high temperatures are normal.

An anti-immigration activist has falsely suggested that Muslims are entitled to exclusive financial offers, and do not have to pay taxes on mortgages. buff.ly/2ampaCk

One of the study's author's told The Journal that their research had been misinterpreted, and reiterated that sunscreen reduces the risk of cancer. jrnl.ie/7087633

Starting this week, anyone ordering goods, including clothes, electronics and makeup, will be liable to charges of up to €3 per item, unless they come from another European Union country. jrnl.ie/7085312t

Images that appear to show the Israeli prime minister wearing an Argentina jersey at the World Cup in the United States are AI-generated. jrnl.ie/7081458