TikTok has not been banned across France

Posts being shared on social media have claimed that France has “officially” banned the video sharing platform TikTok, but this is misleading. While the app has been banned in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia amid riots there, and on the work phones of civil servants, it is not prohibited generally.

We’ve found no reports—in the French media or on the government website or social media channels—of any wider ban. And while TikTok told us it would not be issuing a statement, a spokesperson for the platform told Reuters it had only been blocked in New Caledonia. 

The website for TikTok in France has also shared many recent articles about the company’s operations in the country, including that it is an official partner of the May 2024 Cannes Film…


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AMD’s tiny new Epycs are just Ryzens in disguise • The Register

AMD unveiled a line of tiny Epyc processors designed to compete with Intel’s entry-level E-2400 Xeons.

Unlike the rest of AMD’s Epyc lineup, its latest 4004-series processors don’t use the SP5 or SP6 sockets, instead opting for the comparatively tiny AM5 platform.

In fact, aside from some enterprise-centric features and validation, these aren’t exactly new chips. Peel back the heat spreader and you’ll find a familiar chiplet architecture, with up to two eight-core compute dies and a single central I/O die. These chiplets are based on TSMC’s 5nm and 6nm process tech, respectively.

If that sounds at all familiar, it’s because the silicon underpinning these chips has been around for the better part of two years,…


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Image of crashed helicopter is from Texas not Iran

An image is being shared online with the false claim it shows the wreckage of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi. 

The caption on a post sharing the photo of a damaged helicopter on Instagram says: “‎The wreckage of Iranian President Raisi’s helicopter has been found.”

However, the image is actually of a Eurocopter helicopter crash in Texas, United States, in January 2024.

President Raisi, along with seven other people including Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, died in a helicopter crash in the north of Iran on Sunday 19 May.

Iranian state media reported that the accident occurred as a result of fog and rain.

The image being incorrectly attributed to the crash is actually from an incident near Spofford in southern Texas


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Old footage of Norwegian ship exploding misattributed to Red Sea attack

A video which falsely claims to show an American destroyer being hit by a missile in the Red Sea earlier this month, has been online for over a decade.

The footage has been shared more than a thousand times on X (formerly Twitter), and also on Facebook, with the caption: “BREAKING: The #US destroyer ‘Mason’ was precisely hit in the Red Sea. 

“For the first time, the military spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier Yahya Saree, announces a direct hit on the destroyer, indicating a shift from warnings to direct targeting. #Yemen Conflict.”

There have reportedly been more than 40 attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023, following the outbreak of the current Israel-Gaza conflict. The attacks are being conducted by the Houthis, …


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A ‘Guardian’ article about alien bacteria killed by bird flu on Mars is fake

According to a supposed screenshot circulating on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), the Guardian has published an article about alien bacteria dying from bird flu on Mars. 

However, this is not a real article.

The image resembles a Guardian web page, with the headline: “First case of alien bacteria dying from bird flu recorded on Mars”.

This is followed by a subheading which reads: “Virus may have already killed other undescovered [sic] alien life across several local planets, possibly spreading across the universe”. 

Full Fact could not find any such article on the Guardian’s website or through a wider internet search. 

The Guardian also told Full Fact the screenshot “is not and has never been an article or headline published by the…


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