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Bill McCarthy
@billdmccarthy
Senior digital investigation journalist covering disinformation @AFP @AFPFactCheck • Formerly @PolitiFact • @DukeU alum • “The internet folks” - Stephen Colbert
Washington, DC
factcheck.afp.com
Joined May 2017
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    May 21, 2025
    “Look, here's burial sites all over the place. These are all white farmers that are being buried,” Donald Trump said during today’s meeting with South Africa’s president. The image he was holding up, however, is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    Trump Displays DRC Visual As Proof Of South African 'Genocide'
    Trump Displays DRC Visual As Proof Of South African 'Genocide'
    From barrons.com
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Oct 22, 2021
    New from me: Newsmax and Fox News aired old, out-of-context photos of empty grocery store shelves in recent segments on the supply chain. Some photos in a Newsmax clip actually showed London, Australia, Japan and Berlin. One was taken way back in 2012. bit.ly/3Bd6TUs
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Sep 13, 2022
    New @AFPFactCheck: A viral tweet claimed Meghan Markle wore a shirt with the album cover for the Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead" on it after Queen Elizabeth died. This is false; the image is an old Photoshop job, and the original photo shows Markle in a coat. u.afp.com/ika5
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Apr 10, 2025
    Transgender US pilot Jo Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit yesterday against right-wing influencer Matt Wallace, who falsely claimed on social media that she was flying the military helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington in late January. yahoo.com/news/us-trans-…
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Feb 5, 2025
    An E! News spokesperson tells me this video Elon Musk amplified -- which purports to show E! News reporting that USAID paid celebrities to visit Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky -- "is not authentic and did not originate from E! News." Actor Ben Stiller also posted that it is false.
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Sep 14, 2022
    New @AFPFactCheck: The queen did not say before dying that she had information that will lead to Hillary Clinton's arrest, as some social media posts allege. This false claim is just the latest version of a years-old meme predicated on a conspiracy theory. u.afp.com/iktd
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Apr 5, 2023
    A rumor claiming Karine Jean-Pierre was in a drunk-driving accident went viral, but it is a hoax, started by an anonymous account that shared no evidence and misrepresented an unrelated photo as a pic from the scene. The White House called it "fabricated."
    No proof for claim Karine Jean-Pierre drove while intoxicated
    From factcheck.afp.com
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Jan 23, 2024
    On Truth Social yesterday, Donald Trump shared a picture of himself praying with six fingers -- a clear indication the image is AI-generated.
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Sep 21, 2022
    New @AFPFactCheck: A video viewed millions of times online appears to show Londoners chanting "Let's go Brandon" as US president Joe Biden drove to the queen's funeral. But the clip's audio was manipulated; the original footage features no such heckling. factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32…
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Nov 18, 2020
    Republican election observers were allowed to observe the counting process. Trump keeps claiming they were not. His own lawyers admitted in court that they were allowed. There's photo evidence of GOP observers in the rooms, like this woman in Detroit. bit.ly/2UnQvgM
    user avatar
    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    Nov 18, 2020
    THEY WOULD’NT LET REPUBLICAN POLL WATCHERS INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!
  • user avatar
    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Jun 14, 2023
    This image purporting to show Donald Trump throwing alleged co-conspirator Walt Nauta under the bus in the classified documents case is quickly going viral, but it is a fake Truth Social post. Trump never posted it, and the text exceeds Truth Social's character limit.
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Mar 9, 2023
    Right-wing activist Jack Posobiec, who recently posted a deepfake of Joe Biden declaring a draft and called it a "sneak preview," has shared an @AOC deepfake, again billing it as a "precreation." Like the first, this fake has already fooled some users, fueling misinformation.
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    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Feb 14, 2022
    No, OnlyFans didn't send a recruiter to a college to pitch students on filming porn. The internet freak-out over recruiters on campuses is yet another example of a video created as humor fueling misinformation among viewers who wrongly assume it's real. bit.ly/3rQHbDO
  • user avatar
    Bill McCarthy
    @billdmccarthy
    Apr 17, 2023
    Several fabricated Trump Truth Social posts went viral this weekend. As fakes continue to arise, a reminder to verify that a post is authentic before sharing it. You can check Trump's feed, review archiving sites, search Google for the text of the alleged post, etc.
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