Tag Archives: FACT

Claims that two protesters were “stabbed by Muslims in Stoke” over the weekend have been widely circulating on social media. But Staffordshire Police has confirmed “this information is false and no stabbings have been reported to police, despite videos fuelling speculation on social media”.

A video being shared alongside the claim shows a large police presence and people shouting. The police appear to be standing around someone on the ground as an officer attends to them.

A voice says “a gang of Muslims have just come up and done, I don’t know what the f*** they’ve done to this lad, but he’s bleeding out all over the place. They’ve stabbed him. I hope they haven’t killed him. I hope they haven’t killed him. This is a f***ing joke. Oh there’s…

A post shared more than 14,000 times on Facebook features an image of swimmers spelling out ‘Bring them home now!’ in a swimming pool. The caption claims: “The Israeli Olympic team was not allowed to wear their yellow ‘Bring Them Home’ pins at the Olympic games.

“So they decided to spell it out (during practice) for the entire world to see it!”

But this picture isn’t from the Paris Olympics as the post implies—it was actually shared on 19 November 2023 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and described in the post as “a beautiful tribute by Israel’s national artistic swimming team”. 

The Instagram account for the Israeli artistic swimming team also shared the image on the same day, detailing how 10 female athletes had taken part in the…

Several posts on social media claim that the total percentage of votes in the recent Venezuelan election, in which results have been disputed, added up to 109%.

But the graph shown alongside these claims shows several candidates had a combined vote share of 4.6% (adding up to 100%), not 4.6% each. 

Where does the 109% figure come from?

The posts making this claim feature a screenshot of a graph broadcast by Telesur, a state-funded TV network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela. The graph features five candidates, and adding up the percentages next to their names equals 109%.

However, this calculation assumes the three candidates with 4.6% got a 4.6% vote share each. That…

Posts on social media have incorrectly named the suspect arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of three children in Southport as “Ali Al-Shakati”. 

Eight other children and two adults were also injured in the knife attack on 29 July. 

Police have not named the suspect who was arrested on Monday. But in an email to Full Fact, and in a statement issued on Tuesday, a Merseyside Police spokesperson said: “A name has been shared on social media in connection with the suspect in the incident in Southport. This name is incorrect and we would urge people not to speculate on details of the incident while the investigation is ongoing.”

A police spokesperson told Full Fact that “Ali Al-Shakati” is the name which the statement was referring to as being…

A claim being shared on social media that the new French government plans to introduce a 90% tax on income above €400,000 is missing important context.

The post, shared more than 3,900 times on X (formerly known as Twitter) and also circulating on Facebook, says: “French government calls for a new 90% tax on any annual income above €400,000. 90%.”

A 90% tax on income above €400,000 (currently about £338,000) is part of a proposed income tax scale with 14 brackets, a policy of the France Unbowed party (La France Insoumise), which is part of the New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of parties in France.

The New Popular Front won the most seats—182—in the second round of the National Assembly elections, which took place on 7 July.

However, while the New…