MEBRO · DISINFO DESK
Investigations
Long-form dossiers on the hoaxes, deepfakes, and death rumors that go viral — each one stamped with a verdict and printed with every source on the record.
International
No, Senator Blumenthal Never Called India a 'Failed State' — That's an AI Voice on His Real Remarks
A 19-second clip with Sen. Richard Blumenthal's face but an AI-cloned voice claims he trashed India's economy and military. The real video, from three weeks earlier, shows him warning India and China about Russian oil tariffs instead.
FILED OCT 25, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 25, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
WHO Lockdown Powers Claims After US Exit: Evidence-Based Analysis
Following US withdrawal from WHO, viral claims resurface alleging treaty grants lockdown powers. WHO Pandemic Agreement Article 22 explicitly denies such authority. Patient zero: UK MP Esther McVey, May 2023.
FILED OCT 18, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 18, 2026 · 18 SOURCES
International
The Viral 'Ships Stuck in Hormuz' Video Is Real Footage — From Bangladesh
As Iran's navy claims it has shut down the Strait of Hormuz and tankers keep catching fire there, a viral clip of anchored ships racked up views as "proof" of the chaos. It was actually filmed off Chittagong, Bangladesh, more than 1,000 miles away.
FILED OCT 18, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 18, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
No, Flávio Bolsonaro Isn't Stripping Brazil's Patron Saint of Her Title
A false claim that the runoff frontrunner would demote Nossa Senhora Aparecida tore through Brazil's tightest election in decades — and Brazil's own electoral court ruled on it three times in six days.
FILED OCT 14, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 14, 2026 · 7 SOURCES
International
'Ukraine Started the War': A False Narrative Debunked
Comprehensive fact-check of false claims that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
FILED OCT 13, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 13, 2026 · 10 SOURCES
International
The Riyadh Airport Attack Was Real. The Missile-Strike Video Wasn't.
A Houthi attack killed three people and destroyed a Saudia jet at Riyadh's King Khalid Airport on October 8 — but the viral clip showing the missile hitting the plane is a fabrication built from a decade-old stock photo.
FILED OCT 11, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 11, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
Trump Posted a Nine-Month-Old Iran Protest Video as Breaking News From This Fall
A clip captioned as fresh evidence of Iranians 'preparing to take back their country' was actually filmed during the deadly crackdown that began in December 2025 — and it reached Trump's own Truth Social account before anyone checked.
FILED OCT 10, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 10, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
No, Zelenskyy Didn't Buy a $43 Million Norwegian Royal Estate — It's the Same Playbook Used Against Him for Years
A cloned 'E! News' website invented a story that Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought a 240-acre royal estate during a real September visit to Norway — the latest entry in a years-long disinformation campaign claiming he's bought yachts, villas, bunkers, and even Hitler's old Mercedes.
FILED OCT 8, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 8, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
An AI Disinformation Network Is Putting Fake Quotes in an Australian Senator's and a TV Host's Mouths
Since March 2026, AAP FactCheck has debunked more than half a dozen fabricated quotes and AI-generated images attributed to Sunrise host Natalie Barr and Senator Fatima Payman — all traced to Facebook and X pages operated out of Vietnam.
FILED OCT 8, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 8, 2026 · 4 SOURCES
International
No, BBC Never Named an Indian Passenger in the Flydubai Hijacking. The 'Report' Is an AI Deepfake.
A real Omani co-pilot stabbed his captain and tried to crash Flydubai flight FZ1073. A fake BBC broadcast invented an Indian hijacker and a Mossad-RAW conspiracy to go with it — and the BBC says it never aired.
FILED OCT 6, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 6, 2026 · 4 SOURCES
International
Storm-1516: Inside Russia's Most Prolific AI Disinformation Operation
Microsoft, the European Union, and independent researchers have each separately tied Storm-1516 to Russia's GRU military intelligence service — and the EU sanctioned its lead operative in December 2025.
FILED OCT 5, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 5, 2026 · 10 SOURCES
International
The Viral Meloni-Netanyahu 'Palestinian Flag' Video Is AI — Again
A clip showing Italy's PM confronting Netanyahu at the UN while wearing a Palestinian flag has resurfaced twice in 2026. Neither time was it real.
FILED SEP 30, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 30, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
No, Japan Didn't 'Officially Ban' Israeli Tourists
A September 24 X post claiming Japan barred all Israeli visitors went viral within days — but Japan's own visa rules, and both countries' embassies, say otherwise.
FILED SEP 30, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 30, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
Imran Khan Never Recorded That Jail Speech. He Can't — His Sisters Were Just Detained.
A video showing the jailed former Pakistani PM urging supporters to "come out like brave warriors" on September 27 spread to 75,000+ views. Detection tools put it at 99%+ AI-generated — and by the time it went viral, the march it was hyping had already been postponed.
FILED SEP 28, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 28, 2026 · 4 SOURCES
International
Operation Epstein Fury: How a 91,000-Post Disinformation Wave Weaponized the Epstein Files Against the Iran War
IRGC-linked networks and Iran's state media amplified the Epstein conspiracy to reframe the Iran war — reaching 91,000 posts across 60,000+ accounts in 48 hours. A source-by-source look at the most-cited numbers behind the most viral disinformation story of the 2026 conflict.
FILED SEP 27, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 27, 2026 · 25 SOURCES
International
'Premature Sexualization' Narrative: How Educational Materials Are Misrepresented
Fact-check of claims that schools are 'sexualizing' children: Brazil's 2018 'kit gay' hoax and a related viral explicit-book claim were both refuted by Brazilian authorities and fact-checkers; UK primary sex-ed is confirmed age-appropriate; the US book-ban picture is real and large in scale, but more contested than viral claims suggest.
FILED SEP 26, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 26, 2026 · 7 SOURCES
International
Pravda Network: AI-Enhanced Russian Disinformation at Industrial Scale
The Pravda network is a real, large-scale pro-Kremlin disinformation operation that mimics legitimate news outlets through country-specific domains, and independent researchers have shown it already measurably influences what AI chatbots repeat as fact.
FILED SEP 26, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 26, 2026 · 5 SOURCES
International
The '37-1' UN Women's Rights Vote Is Real. The Date Attached to It Isn't.
Posts spreading during this month's UN General Assembly session say the U.S. just stood alone against a UN resolution on women's equality. The 37-1 vote happened — six months earlier, at a different UN body, on a document that isn't a resolution.
FILED SEP 26, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 26, 2026 · 3 SOURCES
International
Netanyahu's 'No Starvation' in Gaza: Claims Contradicted by Humanitarian Data
Prime Minister Netanyahu said there was no starvation in Gaza and that enough aid was getting in — independent food-security, aid, and health data show the claim was false.
FILED SEP 21, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 21, 2026 · 6 SOURCES
International
NATO 'Troops in Coffins': Inside Russia's Fabricated Casualty Campaign
Viral claims of mass NATO troop casualties in Ukraine trace back to fabricated statistics, recycled war photos, AI-generated images, and a Russia-based fake news network — NATO says no NATO personnel have died in the conflict.
FILED JAN 3, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 20, 2026 · 5 SOURCES
International
John Mark Dougan: American Fugitive Running Russian Disinformation
Dougan served as a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy before fleeing prosecution for Russia in 2016, where he later gained asylum and reported citizenship and built a network of fake news sites tied to the Kremlin's Storm-1516 disinformation operation.
FILED SEP 9, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 9, 2026 · 7 SOURCES
International
Who Bombed the Iranian School? Experts Say America — Trump Says Iran
Independent munitions experts and Bellingcat identified a US Tomahawk missile at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, Iran, where a strike on February 28, 2026 killed well over 150 people, most of them schoolgirls. Trump said Iran bombed its own school. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Pentagon's own preliminary investigation say otherwise.
FILED SEP 7, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 7, 2026 · 34 SOURCES
International
Internet Research Agency: Russia's Troll Farm That Reached 126 Million Americans
The IRA ran its US operation on a monthly budget exceeding $1.25 million by September 2016, organized into graphics, data-analysis, IT, and finance departments — and Facebook later estimated its content reached roughly 126 million Americans.
FILED SEP 7, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 7, 2026 · 8 SOURCES
International
India-Pakistan Karachi Invasion Claim: War Misinformation During Crisis
Videos and TV broadcasts during the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis falsely claimed Indian forces had struck and captured Karachi, with some outlets calling it a full invasion.
FILED SEP 6, 2026 · UPDATED SEP 6, 2026 · 7 SOURCES
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Investigative reports — not user-submitted fact-checks.