The daily check-in

Trending, checked.

Twice a day we pull the posts going viral on TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook and run them through the record. Each entry is a published verdict — what we found, why, and the sources behind it.

Checks from

November 8, 2026

20 checks · 10 morning · 10 afternoon

Morning run

10 checks

Did Democrats really "materialize" 20 million new votes in the midterms?

X · 67,296 likes on Bass post (x-syndication, 8 Nov 02:31Z); Dave Rubin quote-post 12,446 likes; reposted by Trump on Truth Social 7 Nov (trumpstruth.org/statuses/43503) · resurfaced

Misleading

The chart's headline figures are broadly right — House Democrats did win roughly 70 million votes to the Republicans' 55-56 million in the 2026 midterms — but the caption's claim that Democrats 'materialized' 20 million new votes insinuates fraud. The surge is explained by record midterm turnout of about 124 million and a historic Democratic wave, with no evidence of widespread fraud.

PoliticsView details→

Did Usman Khawaja write an autobiography called Sabr about the sandpaper scandal?

Instagram · Front-page AU story: SMH, The Age, Guardian, ABC, Fox Sports, The Australian, The Times (UK), Al Jazeera, Dawn 6-8 Nov; Times reports calls for a new Cricket Australia inquiry

True But

The video is genuine: it is Usman Khawaja's own 7 November 2026 Instagram explanation, widely reported by ABC, the Guardian, AAP and AFP, promoting his memoir Sabr (Penguin, published 10 November 2026). His verifiable statements about dates, roles and the 2021 bowlers' statement check out, but the central allegation that the whole team knew about the sandpaper plot remains a contested first-hand claim that Cricket Australia, Darren Lehmann and the bowlers reject.

SportsView details→

Was a suspicious person spotted on the roof of St Barbara's Church in Kraków?

X · 4,193 likes on the X post (syndication, 2026-11-08 02:33Z); national pickup via naTemat; police issued a denial

False

The video is genuine night-time footage of police outside a church in Kraków's Old Town, but the caption's claim that a suspicious person was spotted on the roof is false — police said the footage was hours old and officers had reacted to a priest on the rectory terrace, not a roof intruder.

CrimeView details→

Were there 20 million new voter registrations in 37 states without proof of citizenship?

X · 41,059 likes on Benny Johnson post (x-syndication, 8 Nov 02:31Z); origin @Shilohmarx 3,555 likes

Misleading

The voter-registration figures in this post are broadly consistent with the Election Assistance Commission's 2024 survey — about 26.2 million new valid registrations nationwide, roughly 20.3 million of them in states without documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements — and the Senate did fail to pass the SAVE America Act. But the post dresses normal registration churn up as an election-threatening mass of unverified voters, and its 'betrayal' framing is opinion.

PoliticsView details→

Did Trump post on Truth Social that Democrats used witchcraft and satanism to win the midterms?

X · 3,469 likes (x-syndication, 8 Nov 02:3xZ)

False

The image is a fabricated Truth Social screenshot — Donald Trump never posted that Democrats used 'witchcraft and satanism' or that he would 'fight' the 2026 midterm results, and Snopes has rated the claim fake. The post's insulting commentary rests entirely on that invented quote.

PoliticsView details→

Did the 2026 midterm numbers in Arizona, Texas, Kansas and Mississippi 'make no sense' because of election fraud?

X · 8,152 likes (x-syndication, 8 Nov 02:35Z); Raw Story says 524,000+ views as of Sat morning; rebuttal by ex-Maricopa recorder Stephen Richer 2,869 likes

False

Kari Lake did post this on X after the 3 November 2026 midterms, but her claim that the results in Arizona, Texas, Kansas and Mississippi reveal election fraud is baseless — she cited no evidence and the Associated Press found no support for rigged-election claims in the 2026 count.

PoliticsView details→

Did one Wikipedia editor quietly reshape Abdul El-Sayed's page before the Michigan Senate election?

X · 8,747 likes (x-syndication, 8 Nov); follow-up thread by @chalavyishmael 4,799 likes; IBTimes UK writeup 7 Nov after El-Sayed's win · resurfaced

True But

The post's core claim — that one Wikipedia editor, 'CopyleftEverything', edited Abdul El-Sayed's page before the 2026 Michigan Senate election to soften or remove controversies — is corroborated by New York Post reporting and documentary evidence from the article's revision history. The attached image is a screenshot of El-Sayed's genuine Wikipedia article; the only caveat is that the 'organised op' framing is the poster's interpretation of motive.

PoliticsTechnologyView details→

Did Deepinder Goyal prove Temple is not a scam because it offers a 14-day return policy?

X · 12,452 likes per X syndication 8 Nov; 'deepinder goyal' is a live Google Trends IN term on 8 Nov (TOI 7 Nov walk-back/apology; NDTV video 'Doctors question claims') · resurfaced

Misleading

The text is a genuine post by Deepinder Goyal (5 November 2026) defending his Temple wearable against Indian doctors' criticism, but its central reassurance is misleading: a 14-day refund window and heavy spending do not validate the device's advertised brain blood flow and Entropy science, which has no independent or peer-reviewed verification and which Goyal himself frames as unvalidated wellness tracking.

HealthTechnologyView details→

Was 'Siganteng' finally forcibly picked up over the Prabowo wiretapping case after being reported missing?

Threads · Kompas [KLARIFIKASI] piece is the news item attached to a Google Trends ID trend (8 Nov); TNI chief denial of 'Teddy examined by POM' covered by Warta Ekonomi, VIVA, Pontianak Post, RMOL, Riau Aktual 6-7 Nov

True But

The clip is genuine television footage of the 3 November 2026 Bareskrim Polri press conference at which the three suspects in the illegal wiretapping of President Prabowo's phone were announced, and every statement made in it checks out against official accounts and major outlets. The caption, however, adds unverified colour — that the figure known as 'Siganteng' was 'finally forcibly picked up' and had earlier been 'reported missing' — which no credible reporting supports.

PoliticsView details→

Is Elon Musk facing five years in prison over DOGE?

Instagram · Described as a 'viral Instagram video' by IBTimes UK 7 Nov (no view counts given)

Misleading

The video is a genuine creator commentary clip built on real documents, but its core claim — that Elon Musk is 'looking at five years in prison' and was put 'on notice' of criminal violations — is unsupported: five years is only the statutory maximum for a wilful violation of specific federal laws, and no charge against Musk exists.

PoliticsView details→

Afternoon run

10 checks

Is the leaked Rosstat data on Russian war deaths real and reliable?

X · Kyiv Independent (7 Nov), Moscow Times (8 Nov), t-online (8 Nov), Cybernews, money.pl, noviny.sk pickup; thread quotes skeptic @AMK_Mapping_ post; Rosstat confirms attacks but denies leak

True But

Janis Kluge's thread about the leaked Rosstat death-certificate data is well grounded: the breach and the roughly 394,000–450,000 war-death estimates were widely reported, and the figures do align with other independent estimates. The one caveat is that the authenticity of the leaked dataset had not yet been independently confirmed, so his confidence that the numbers were not manipulated is a reasoned expert judgement rather than a verified fact.

ConflictTechnologyView details→

Did The Simpsons predict a 'Great Blackout' on 17 November?

X · 10,880 likes, 135 replies (X syndication, 8 Nov); ongoing coverage Crónica MX 3 Nov, Emisoras Unidas 4 Nov, GadgetReview 4 Nov, Jornal da Orla (BR) 8 Nov; recurring meme (also 2024) · resurfaced

False

The video is genuine footage from the 2023 Simpsons episode 'It's a Blunderful Life', but the caption's claim that the show 'predicts' a real Great Blackout on 17 November is false — the episode depicts a fictional Springfield outage and never forecasts a real event. The rumour is riding on the coincidence that FEMA and the FCC have a routine nationwide emergency-alert test scheduled for 17 November 2026.

TechnologyOtherView details→

Does this video show Tehran's air defenses engaging unidentified objects in the sky?

X · Shared by at least 5 X accounts in English and Arabic between 7 Nov 20:51Z and 8 Nov 05:29Z (per Misbar 8 Nov); no view counts available

Misleading

The night footage is real, but it is not new: the clip was published by Iranian media on 7 May 2026 as air defenses firing over western Tehran, so presenting it as a current engagement with 'unidentified objects' is misleading.

ConflictView details→

Were a Gaza mass wedding and flooded tents really filmed just hours apart?

X · Series of GAZAWOOD posts 7 Nov amid Gaza storm (Gaza govt media office: ~70,000 tents flooded); reposted in Arabic by @bosh_7774 claiming flood videos are AI-generated for donations; Kashif fact-check 8 Nov. No view counts available

Misleading

The montage uses two genuine Gaza recordings - a real 250-couple mass wedding on 6 November 2026 and the real flooding of about 70,000 displaced people's tents as the season's first storm hit that night - and pairs them under a 'FEW HOURS APART' banner to insinuate that the suffering footage is staged. The clips and the timing are accurate; the conclusion the post invites is false and has been rated misleading by fact-checkers.

ConflictDisasterView details→

Was the Krakow shooter linked to pro-Azov Ukrainian fighters or Ukraine's International Legion?

X · OKO.press (8 Nov) traces graphic's spread across Telegram, Facebook, TikTok, X, VK and Bulgarian/Greek/Spanish/Chinese/Vietnamese outlets; Demagog fact-check 8 Nov; police denial post (kwpkrakow) widely shared

False

The Krakow mass shooting of 7 November 2026 is real, but the claim that the attacker was tied to pro-Azov Ukrainian fighters is false — a Russian-sourced narrative built on a generic, freely sold 'Blackbeard flag' patch that Polish outlets have debunked.

CrimeConflictView details→

Did Elon Musk criticise Binance for holding 80% of the crypto market?

X · Spreader post 1,574 likes / 351 replies (X syndication, 8 Nov); Musk's denial reply 11,441 likes; CZ reply 7,371 likes; covered by BeInCrypto/Yahoo (7 Nov), Bitcoin Foundation, tech-insider, shattered.io, BigGo Finance (8 Nov)

False

The photo of Elon Musk in a black DOGE cap is a genuine older photograph, but the claim attached to it is fabricated: Musk explicitly denied ever criticising Binance's market share or urging users to move funds, and Binance's Changpeng Zhao publicly flagged the post as false information.

EconomyTechnologyView details→

Did Xi Jinping privately blast Trump over Stephen Miller's appointment as chief of staff?

X · 'tens of thousands of views' per MEAWW (8 Nov); Miller appointment is top US news

False

The post attributes to Xi Jinping a fabricated quotation attacking Trump over Stephen Miller's appointment as chief of staff; Miller's appointment is real, but no such Xi remark exists, and the attached clip shows unrelated podium footage captioned 'I have visited many places around the world'.

PoliticsView details→

Was Lula's 10.3 million vote increase in Brazil's 2026 runoff mathematically impossible?

X · Primary is a Clash Report repost of Flávio Bolsonaro's video (25 likes per X syndication); Flávio's own post not found in any raw HTML (Pleno News/Terra Brasil embed IG reels INCONCLUSIVE); wide pickup: Terra, Estadão Verifica, Poder360, Pleno, BNews, UOL 5-7 Nov

False

The video is a genuine clip of Flávio Bolsonaro repeating his claim that Lula's 10.3 million vote gain between rounds made the 2026 Brazilian election 'mathematically impossible' — a claim the TSE and multiple independent fact-checkers have shown to be false, since rising turnout and the collapse of blank/null and third-way votes fully account for the increase.

PoliticsView details→

Did Tinubu borrow ₦120 trillion in three years while 16 past leaders borrowed ₦46 trillion in 63 years?

X · Presidency (SA on social media Dada Olusegun) rebutted the claim on 8 Nov; picked up by The Sun, TheNiche, QED, NigerianEye, First Daily 8 Nov. No view counts for the post · resurfaced

Misleading

The image is a partisan attack graphic whose central numbers are misleading: ₦46 trillion was Nigeria's outstanding public debt at end-2022, not the cumulative borrowing of 16 leaders, and official Debt Management Office data do not support ₦120 trillion of new borrowing under Tinubu. Only the accompanying point that Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy is true.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did Zelensky speak at a special panel on Ukraine at the 30th Ibero-American Summit?

YouTube · Picked up by tz/Newsweek (7 Nov), Diario de México/EFE, Hromadske; Mimikama reader-question fact-check 8 Nov · resurfaced

True

The post accurately titles an official video of President Zelensky's address to a special panel on Ukraine at the 30th Ibero-American Summit in Madrid on 5 November 2026. The substantive claims in the speech — the Komyshuvakha death toll, the Oleshky humanitarian operation with the US First Lady, and Ukraine's first appearance at the summit — are corroborated by independent and official sources.

ConflictPoliticsView details→