Recently Updated
Theories updated or fact-checked in the last 30 days — reflecting new evidence, revised verdicts, and editorial improvements.
- Health & MedicinePartially True
COVID lockdown effectiveness public-health debate (2020-present)
The Great Barrington Declaration (4 October 2020), signed by epidemiologists Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta, and Martin Kulldorff, advocated 'focused protection' of the vulnerable over broad population lockdowns. The John Snow Memorandum (14 October 2020) offered a counter-statement signed by Devi Sridhar, Trish Greenhalgh, and others. Sweden's Anders Tegnell pursued a less restrictive approach. A Johns Hopkins meta-analysis (Herby, Jonung, and Hanke, January 2022) found lockdowns had minimal effect on COVID mortality in Europe and the US. The Royal Society published a competing evidence review in August 2023. Jay Bhattacharya was appointed HHS Director in 2025. This is a legitimate ongoing scientific and policy debate, distinct from conspiracy claims that lockdowns were designed for population control.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsConfirmed
Iran-Israel direct strikes (2024)
Latest update: Direct Iran-Israel hostilities have since escalated far beyond the 2024 exchanges: a June 2025 '12-Day War' (with US strikes on Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan nuclear sites), a February-March 2026 escalation, and renewed strikes and a Strait of Hormuz confrontation continuing into July 2026.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsDebunked
UN Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030
UN Agenda 21 (1992) and its successor the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015, the 17 SDGs) are non-binding, voluntary UN action plans on sustainable development. A conspiracy theory recasts them as a covert blueprint for one-world government, abolition of private property, forced urbanization and depopulation.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineConfirmed
Henrietta Lacks HeLa cell line consent (Feb 1951)
On 8 February 1951, a cervical cancer tissue sample was taken from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old Black tobacco farmer, at Johns Hopkins Hospital without her informed consent — standard practice at the time. Researcher George Gey cultured the first immortal human cell line from the sample, designating it 'HeLa.' The cells were subsequently used in developing the Salk polio vaccine (1952), HPV-cancer research, in-vitro fertilization, and COVID-19 vaccine development. The Lacks family was unaware of the cell line until 1973. Rebecca Skloot's 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' (2010) brought the case to mass public attention. On 1 August 2023 the family reached a settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific over commercial use of HeLa cells.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsPartially True
Egypt warning to Israel before Oct 7 2023 (intelligence-share claims)
Multiple credible reports in October 2023 claimed Egyptian intelligence had warned Israel of an imminent major Hamas attack 'three days before' the 7 October 2023 assault. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry both made statements consistent with such a warning having been conveyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office denied receiving a specific warning of the attack's scale or timing. A Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee inquiry in October 2023 heard testimony from intelligence officials. The Israeli State Comptroller published a report in July 2024 on intelligence failures. The claim is partially true: Egypt conveyed general threat warnings; whether a specific operationally actionable warning was conveyed and ignored remains disputed.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicinePartially True
CDC mask-recommendation reversal (Feb-Apr 2020)
Latest update: In July 2026 Sen. Rand Paul released roughly 1,141 pages of Fauci's pandemic diary, including a March 31, 2020 entry stating 'We probably were too strong in saying masks do not work' — a contemporaneous primary source corroborating that the early 'don't wear masks' guidance was an overcorrection later reversed.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsConfirmed
Boeing CFT Starliner stranded astronauts (2024-25)
Boeing's Crew Flight Test (CFT) launched on 5 June 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station on Starliner's first crewed mission. Helium leaks in the service module and five thruster failures during docking raised safety concerns. On 24 August 2024, NASA announced it would return Starliner uncrewed on 6 September 2024 rather than risk a crewed return. Wilmore and Williams remained on the ISS and returned to Earth on 18 March 2025 aboard SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon — approximately 286 days after launch. A conspiracy framing emerged, amplified by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, that the decision to leave the astronauts was politically motivated rather than safety-driven. NASA's Inspector General and internal review found the decision was based on genuine safety uncertainty about the thrusters. Verdict: confirmed on facts; the 'political decision' conspiracy framing is debunked.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsUnsubstantiated
Georgia Guidestones
A 19-foot granite monument erected in 1980 near Elberton, Georgia, by an anonymous commissioner using the pseudonym 'R.C. Christian,' inscribed with ten 'guides' whose first line called to keep humanity under 500 million. Conspiracy theorists read it as a globalist/Illuminati blueprint for depopulation, and it was bombed and demolished in 2022.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Space & ExtraterrestrialDebunked
Black Knight Satellite
The Black Knight satellite is the belief that an artificial object of extraterrestrial origin, roughly 13,000 years old, has been silently orbiting Earth in a near-polar orbit. In reality it is a single 'legend' assembled from at least six unrelated, individually explained events, capped by 1998 NASA photos of a lost thermal blanket.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillancePartially True
Meta/Facebook knowledge of Cambridge Analytica before Mar 2018 (2015-18)
Facebook discovered in December 2015 that Aleksandr Kogan's 'thisisyourdigitallife' app had harvested data from approximately 87 million users and transferred it to SCL Group/Cambridge Analytica. Facebook contacted Cambridge Analytica, obtained certifications of data deletion, and did not notify affected users. Internal documents produced in the 2018 FTC investigation showed Facebook had identified the policy enforcement gap but treated it as resolved by the deletion certifications. Christopher Wylie's whistleblower disclosures to the New York Times and The Guardian (17 March 2018) revealed that the data had not been deleted. Facebook paid a $5 billion FTC settlement (24 July 2019) and a $100 million SEC fine. The claim that Facebook knowingly concealed this data harvest from regulators and users is partially supported by the documentary record.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceUnsubstantiated
AI existential risk / 'AI doomer' debate (2014-present)
The claim that artificial intelligence poses an existential or catastrophic risk to humanity has been advanced by Nick Bostrom ('Superintelligence,' 2014), Stuart Russell ('Human Compatible,' 2019), Eliezer Yudkowsky and the LessWrong rationalist community, and — in more measured form — by Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. The Future of Life Institute open letter (22 March 2023) calling for a six-month pause on large AI experiments attracted over 30,000 signatories. The Center for AI Safety statement (30 May 2023) was signed by Hinton, Bengio, Sam Altman, and Demis Hassabis. The AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park (1-2 November 2023) convened 28 countries plus the EU. Counter-arguments from Andrew Ng, Yann LeCun, and Melanie Mitchell hold that existential framing overstates near-term risk and distracts from concrete algorithmic harms including bias and labour displacement.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceConfirmed
Section 230 platform-immunity debate (1996-present)
Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act 1996 provides that no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. Drafted by Reps. Christopher Cox and Ron Wyden as a response to Stratton Oakmont v Prodigy (1995), it has since shielded Meta, Google, and X from liability for user-generated content. Critics — from the Knight First Amendment Institute to House Energy and Commerce Committee — argue the immunity is overbroad and enables platform censorship; defenders counter that removing it would chill free expression and destroy small platforms. Trump EO 13925 (28 May 2020) directed a review; it was revoked 21 January 2021. The Supreme Court dismissed federal-government censorship-collusion claims in Murthy v Missouri (26 June 2024) for lack of standing. The 'conspiracy' framing here is the claim that Big Tech lobbied to entrench and expand Section 230 to achieve permanent, unaccountable censorship power.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsConfirmed
Buck v Bell SCOTUS sterilization ruling (May 2 1927)
On 2 May 1927, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Buck v. Bell that Virginia's compulsory sterilization law was constitutional. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote the majority opinion, coining the phrase 'three generations of imbeciles are enough.' The sole dissenter, Justice Pierce Butler, did not write an opinion. Carrie Buck — the plaintiff, 17 years old, raped by her foster family's nephew and then institutionalized — was sterilized at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded. Later research by Stephen Jay Gould showed that Buck's daughter Vivian, cited in Holmes's opinion as the 'third generation of imbeciles,' achieved normal-to-honor-roll school performance before dying young. The ruling was cited by Nazi defendants at Nuremberg and has never been formally overturned.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsPartially True
Chicago Boys + Pinochet economic reforms (1973-1990)
Beginning in the mid-1950s, an exchange programme between the University of Chicago economics department and the Catholic University of Chile sent Chilean students to study under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger. The resulting cohort — nicknamed the "Chicago Boys" and including Sergio de Castro, Pablo Baraona, Álvaro Bardón, and Jorge Cauas — implemented sweeping free-market reforms after the September 11 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power. The reforms included mass privatisation of banking (1976-78) and pensions (1981 AFP system), steep tariff reductions, and central-bank independence. Their record is disputed: initial successes were followed by the severe 1981-83 recession and 1982 banking crisis. Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine' (2007) argued the reforms required authoritarian repression to implement; critics of Klein argue she overstated the causal link.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - History & Ancient CivilizationsConfirmed
American eugenics movement (1907-present)
Indiana enacted the first compulsory sterilization law in 1907, signed by Governor J. Frank Hanly. Between 1907 and 1979, approximately 70,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized across 32 states. California alone accounted for roughly 20,000 sterilizations. The Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor — funded by Carnegie and Rockefeller — coordinated research and policy advocacy. Madison Grant's 'The Passing of the Great Race' (1916) and the Immigration Act of 1924 translated eugenic pseudoscience into federal law. North Carolina's sterilization programme continued into the 1970s; ICE detention sterilization claims emerged as recently as 2020. Reparations programmes in North Carolina (2013) and Virginia (2015) represent partial acknowledgement of state-sanctioned harm.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceConfirmed
Israel Mossad Hezbollah pager attack (Sept 17 2024)
On 17 September 2024, approximately 5,000 pagers used by Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon and Syria detonated simultaneously, killing 12 people and injuring thousands. The following day, 18 September, ICOM IC-V82 walkie-talkies exploded, killing 20+ more. Total casualties: at least 42 killed, 3,500+ injured. Reuters and Washington Post reporting described a supply-chain compromise via shell companies BAC Consulting (Hungary) and Norta Global (Bulgaria). Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed Israeli responsibility in a declassification announced in August 2025. The UN OHCHR opened an investigation into compliance with international humanitarian law.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsPartially True
Washington Consensus / IMF structural adjustment programs (1989-present)
In 1989, economist John Williamson coined the term "Washington Consensus" in a paper listing ten policy prescriptions he observed as common ground among the IMF, World Bank, and US Treasury for Latin American reform: fiscal discipline, trade liberalisation, privatisation, deregulation, and capital-account openness. The policies were applied as conditions on IMF and World Bank loans through the 1990s and 2000s. Critics including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz ("Globalization and Its Discontents," 2002) argued the conditionality was harmful and ideologically driven. The Asian financial crisis (1997-98) and Argentina's 2001-02 collapse became central exhibits. Williamson himself argued in 2004 that his original list was misrepresented as "neoliberalism" in its critics' use.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsConfirmed
Bush Sr Iran-Contra pardons (Dec 24 1992)
On Christmas Eve 1992, outgoing President George H.W. Bush pardoned six Iran-Contra figures: former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, CIA officer Duane Clarridge, CIA officer Alan Fiers, former CIA Deputy Director of Operations Clair George, and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane. Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh denounced the pardons as a "cover-up," arguing they cut off his investigation before Weinberger could stand trial. A Bush VP diary entry released after the pardons revealed that Bush himself had been fully briefed on the Iran-Contra operation: "I was one of the few people that knew fully the details." Walsh's Final Report (1993/1994) accused Bush of withholding information.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceConfirmed
Effective Altruism / SBF / OpenAI-safety funding network (2014-23)
Latest update: On June 12, 2026, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Sam Bankman-Fried's 2023 FTX fraud conviction and 25-year sentence, leaving the fraud finding at the center of this funding network intact.
Aug 2, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
COVID Vaccine Depopulation Claims
Claims that COVID-19 vaccines were designed to kill, sterilize, or depopulate recipients.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceUnder Investigation
AI War-Footage Provenance Claims
Claims that conflict footage is AI-generated, staged, or misattributed, sometimes used to deny casualties or assign false blame.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineUnsubstantiated
Seed-Oil Detox Cure Claims
Claims that seed oils are a hidden toxin and that detox products or strict elimination protocols cure broad disease categories.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsUnder Investigation
Charlie Kirk Assassination False Claims
Latest update: As of July 2026 the case has reached a preliminary hearing: Tyler Robinson faces an aggravated-murder charge with prosecutors seeking the death penalty, while defense lawyers dispute the DNA linking him to the recovered rifle.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineUnsubstantiated
Disease X World Government Claims
Claims that Disease X preparedness is proof of a planned pandemic or world-government takeover.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Space & ExtraterrestrialUnsubstantiated
Secret Space Program Claims
Claims that governments run hidden breakaway space fleets or off-world bases.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Finance & EconomicsPartially True
Cashless Society and CBDC Control Claims
Latest update: In July 2026 the US enacted a four-year ban (through 2030) on the Federal Reserve issuing a CBDC, blocking a government digital dollar and materially reducing the near-term US CBDC-surveillance scenario central to this theory.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
Died Suddenly Documentary Claims
Claims popularized by the film Died Suddenly that vaccines caused mass unexplained deaths and fibrous clots.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceConfirmed
Data Broker Location-Tracking Claims
Latest update: In May 2026 the FTC ordered data broker Kochava to stop selling sensitive location data without express consent, further confirming that real-world data-broker location tracking (as distinct from 'omniscient surveillance') is documented and now subject to federal enforcement.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicinePartially True
Cancer-Clinic Suppression Claims
Claims that clinics, regulators, or pharmaceutical companies suppress alternative cancer cures.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceDebunked
Crisis Event AI Hoax Claims
Claims that real crisis footage, victims, or witnesses are AI-generated fabrications.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
5G Health and COVID Claims
Claims that 5G networks cause COVID-19, immune collapse, or hidden illness patterns.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Space & ExtraterrestrialDebunked
Alien Autopsy Media Provenance
A media-provenance page tracing alien-autopsy film and image claims.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Finance & EconomicsPartially True
BlackRock Owns Everything Claims
Claims that BlackRock secretly owns or controls all major companies, governments, media, and housing markets.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Science & EnvironmentUnsubstantiated
Smart-Meter Wildfire Claims
Claims that smart meters caused or intentionally triggered major wildfires.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Finance & EconomicsPartially True
Private Equity Hospital Ownership Claims
Latest update: A July 2026 Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracker counted ~447 PE-owned US hospitals, identified Apollo Global as the largest owner, and found PE facilities lagging national CMS quality benchmarks (17% 1-star vs 7.9%), updating the evidence for this theory.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineUnsubstantiated
Bird Flu Plandemic Claims
Claims that avian-influenza outbreaks are staged or engineered as a planned pandemic, food-control program, or vaccine-market operation.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceUnsubstantiated
Key Bridge Cyberattack Claims
Claims that the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was caused by a cyberattack or coordinated sabotage rather than the documented ship strike investigation.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
Raw Milk Cure Claims
Claims that raw milk cures disease or is being suppressed because it outperforms medicine.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Space & ExtraterrestrialUnder Investigation
AARO Historical Report Tracker
Latest update: In June 2026 the US stood up a new UAP Science Advisory Council (chaired by Avi Loeb) alongside a fresh AARO report, extending — but not overturning — the official record this tracker follows.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Technology & SurveillanceDebunked
AI-Generated Disaster Survivor Hoaxes
Claims that real disaster survivors, victims, or witnesses are AI-generated fabrications, often based on compression artifacts or synthetic-media panic.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Science & EnvironmentDebunked
Hurricane and Weather-Control Claims
Claims that governments steer or intensify hurricanes using HAARP, cloud seeding, or secret atmospheric technology.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsUnsubstantiated
Ukraine Biolabs Claims
Latest update: A June 2026 DNI (Gabbard) release on Ukrainian labs drew wide coverage but was found to recycle already-public 2019 material with errors and provided no evidence of a bioweapons program — reinforcing that the biolab-weapons claims remain unsubstantiated.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsDebunked
9/11 Truth Movement
A loose coalition of researchers and activists who reject the official account of the September 11, 2001 attacks, alleging government foreknowledge, controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, or a staged Pentagon strike.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineUnder Investigation
COVID-19 Lab Leak Hypothesis
Latest update: In late April 2026 the U.S. Justice Department indicted David Morens, a former senior NIAID adviser to Anthony Fauci, on five counts including conspiracy and concealing/falsifying federal records related to COVID-19 origins, escalating the criminal side of the origins probe.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Science & EnvironmentUnsubstantiated
Geoengineering Versus Chemtrails
Claims that solar geoengineering research proves an active global chemtrail spraying program.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Finance & EconomicsPartially True
George Soros Conspiracy Claims
Claims that George Soros personally controls protests, prosecutors, migration, currency crises, or global politics through a hidden command structure.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
Bleach/MMS Detox Cure Networks
Networks promoting chlorine dioxide or MMS as a detox, autism treatment, infection cure, or cancer cure.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsUnsubstantiated
FEMA Disaster Aid Confiscation Claims
Claims that FEMA disaster aid is a pretext to confiscate land, supplies, or children after emergencies.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Health & MedicineDebunked
Medbeds and Miracle Technology Cures
Claims that secret medical beds can cure severe disease but are hidden by elites or awaiting disclosure.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked - Government & PoliticsDebunked
White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Staged Claims
Claims that the April 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting was staged or allowed to happen for political advantage.
Jul 31, 2026fact-checked