iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 05/10/2026

A Facebook group promoting the harvesting of peat as fuel to burn has made misleading claims implying turf is environmentally friendly. jrnl.ie/7180890

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Despite claims online, burning turf has a significant carbon footprint

Rates of peat burning have dropped to less than a sixth of what it was in 2010.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 02/10/2026

One claim shared on X, and seen hundreds of thousands of times, is that the incident was a joint Indian-Israeli intelligence operation conducted with the aim of putting the blame on Iran. jrnl.ie/7180572

jrnl.ie

Debunked: AI-altered video claims attack on Flydubai plane was Indian-Israeli plot to implicate Iran

There has been rampant speculation online that the whole ordeal was an Israeli “false flag” operation.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 30/09/2026

Ongoing tensions over a proposed Orange Order march in Portadown, Co Armagh, have led to misinformation online. This includes claims by fringe commentators that the march was a purposeful tactic to stop people talking about immigration. jrnl.ie/7178008

jrnl.ie

AI images and misinformation shared widely online during Garvaghy Road stand-off

The deputy leader of the TUV admitted a photo he posted was AI-generated.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 29/09/2026

Michelle O’Neill’s presence at the Garvaghy Road protest has prompted the leader of the DUP to condemn her for allegedly breaking the law — an accusation that could threaten their shaky Stormont power-sharing arrangement. jrnl.ie/7177106t

jrnl.ie

Explainer: Did Michelle O’Neill break the law by going to Portadown?

Parades, and protests against them, are legally governed by the same law in Northern Ireland.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 23/09/2026

Multiple social media posts are congratulating a Danish "anti-Islamic migration" political party on gains made during the 21 September election. The only problem? Denmark hasn’t had an election since March. jrnl.ie/7170457

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Posts celebrating Danish party's result in 'tonight's election' are six months late

Denmark has not had a general election since March, and is not due another one until 2030.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 21/09/2026

Claims that a group of foreign men were arrested at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City for “waving a gun around” are false. jrnl.ie/7168866

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Gardaí discovered an Airsoft gun, but didn't arrest ‘migrant men’ with firearms in Dublin

An Airsoft gun was found, but no arrests were made.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 17/09/2026

False claims that the public is being “left in the dark” about rapes and sexual assaults due to the government creating new laws that enforce “media blackouts” have spread online. jrnl.ie/7164610

jrnl.ie

Debunked: The media publishes news about sexual assaults, reporting is not banned by ‘new laws’

Since 1981, media have been legally forbidden from identifying rape suspects before a conviction.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 14/09/2026

Donald Trump made a series of claims during his Ireland visit - about Irish pharma firms, investment in the US, diesel shortages and $5,000 payments to Americans. We examined the evidence behind each jrnl.ie/7162249t

jrnl.ie

http://jrnl.ie/7162249t

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 04/09/2026

Pictures that appear to show the deceased child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein speaking to the President of the European Commission are AI-generated. jrnl.ie/7152731

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Pictures of Ursula von der Leyen with Jeffrey Epstein are AI-generated

The fake photo has been seen hundreds of thousands of times.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 03/09/2026

While the internet is filled with arguments denying the effects of farming on climate change, it is worth delving into one argument that methane from cow herds is harmless, as featured in a video whose popularity has endured online.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 02/09/2026

A video of an airsoft rifle taken outside a takeaway in a Tallaght industrial estate became the basis for false claims about foreigners “coming over here to kill us”. jrnl.ie/7149897

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Video said to show a firearms sale by a Dublin mosque doesn’t show firearms or a mosque

The footage shows airsoft guns being inspected at an industrial estate.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 27/08/2026

Posts spread online falsely claim that the United Kingdom will be accommodating thousands of migrants who stormed the borders of a Spanish enclave in North Africa last month. jrnl.ie/7143854

jrnl.ie

Debunked: The UK has not agreed to accommodate '4,000 Moroccans' who illegally entered Ceuta

A screenshot also falsely claims that migrants had murdered Spaniards in Ceuta.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 26/08/2026

“During meetings, platform representatives often appeared unfamiliar with the context of the unfolding election,” the report on misinformation in Ireland reads. “Many were unable to articulate the rationale for content-moderation decisions.” jrnl.ie/7139970

jrnl.ie

Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn didn't act on 77% of misinformation reported during Áras race

No action was taken on about 87% of non-AI election-related disinformation.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 26/08/2026

A story shared on social media that a Cork woman who was invited to smell a woman’s perfume and later woke up to find she had been robbed is a copy of an internet rumour. jrnl.ie/7142689

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Story of a Cork woman being knocked out after smelling perfume is an urban legend

Versions of the story have appeared going back to the turn of the millenium.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 26/08/2026

Social media companies failed to act on the vast majority of electoral disinformation reported by researchers ahead of last year’s presidential election, a new report shows. jrnl.ie/7139970

jrnl.ie

http://jrnl.ie/7139970t

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 21/08/2026

Old videos have been reused, falsely purporting to show thousands of migrants again overrunning the borders of Ceuta. This footage was actually taken in July. jrnl.ie/7137206

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Weeks-old videos falsely said to show ‘second wave’ of migrants entering Ceuta

Tommy Robinson and a Portuguese politician were among those who misleadingly shared the footage.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 20/08/2026

Dublin Bus did hire nearly 100 drivers from South Africa, but not as part of an equality drive. They hired qualified, professional drivers from a country that drives on the left to tackle a driver shortage. jrnl.ie/7135564

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Dublin Bus hired from overseas due to a driver shortage, not DEI programmes

The European Commission warns there is “a severe and escalating shortage” of bus drivers.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 18/08/2026

The methane from ruminant animals is widely considered to be a significant source of greenhouse gases, though there are real controversies over how exactly this should be measured. jrnl.ie/7133647

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Cows contribute significantly towards climate change, despite claims in viral video

Methane has a short but dramatic effect on the earth’s atmosphere.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 14/08/2026

A misquoted conversation from a live-streamed podcast has been used to falsely claim that an academic that advises the government on racism argued that the Irish language should be abandoned. jrnl.ie/7131102

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Government adviser Ebun Joseph is being widely misquoted in comments about Irish language

The adviser on racism did not argue that the Irish language should be abandoned.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 14/08/2026

While the thrust of the government's documents focus on battling institutional sexism, the strategy does include one cautionary description of tradwives. jrnl.ie/7128792

jrnl.ie

Debunked: The government’s strategy for women is not a campaign to discourage homemakers

A strategy document that mentions “tradwives” has been the subject of criticism.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 10/08/2026

The international economics group, the OECD, has agreed to remove a misleading statistic they published which stated that tourist numbers to Ireland fell by 32% between 2019 and 2025. jrnl.ie/7124318

jrnl.ie

FactCheck: OECD to remove bogus statistic that tourism in Ireland fell by 32%

Claims tourist numbers to Ireland fell by 32% between 2019 and 2025 have been widely shared online.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 07/08/2026

After the doctor who led the responses against the Covid pandemic in America was brought before a Senate hearing, false claims were shared by an Irish commentator that he had said that Covid was just the common flu. jrnl.ie/7124640

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Anthony Fauci did not say that Covid was nothing more than the common flu

The doctor who led the US response to Covid was held in contempt after refusing to answer questions at a Senate hearing.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 06/08/2026

Images of tens of thousands of people crossing from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta prompted plenty of reactions on line, but not all of them were based in fact. For the full story, visit The Journal's FactCheck section.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 31/07/2026

Conflicting false statements, largely pushed by far-right activists, have exaggerated narratives about the Spanish government’s response to the migrant crisis in Ceuta. jrnl.ie/7118858

jrnl.ie

Be careful of fake news about Ceuta as Spanish enclave faces migrant crisis

Some of the claims misunderstood that Ceuta, while Spanish-run, is located in Africa.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 29/07/2026

A real-life incident in which a man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” mid-air appears to have been the basis of a fake story featuring AI-generated images. jrnl.ie/7116350

jrnl.ie

Debunked: AI pic used to mis-tell story of a man almost sucked out a Ryanair plane window

The fake story about a Liverpool to Dublin flight mirrored a real-life event over Greece.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 25/07/2026

Misleading maps and false stats are spread by the far-right to manufacture a crisis. They are intended to scare people into feeling that Ireland is changing so fast that they can’t keep up. jrnl.ie/7108860

jrnl.ie

How statistics can be twisted to push the Great Replacement conspiracy theory

Misleading maps manufacture a crisis that the data does not support.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 24/07/2026

Post about a Medical Council hearing for Patrick Morrissey, a doctor who said that he prescribed unproven treatments for Covid patients during the pandemic, are filled with misinformation. jrnl.ie/7112282

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Doctor who promoted unproven Covid drugs isn't on trial for ‘questioning’ authorities

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been studied extensively as treatments for Covid.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 16/07/2026

False claims been shared online that Covid deaths were actually caused by drugs and mechanical ventilation. Although the claim has been spread by Irish people, these claims cite a "whistleblower" nurse who is American and did not work in Ireland jrnl.ie/7103685

jrnl.ie

Debunked: False ‘whistleblower’ claim says remdesivir and ventilators killed Covid patients

In one study, half the Covid patients who asked not to be intubated died.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 11/07/2026

The rhetoric around a European parliament vote to allow tech companies to monitor online chats in an effort to clamp down on child abuse has been so extreme that it’s not always clear that opposing sides are discussing the same thing. jrnl.ie/7097705

jrnl.ie

What is ‘chat control’, the EU's contentious plan to fight online child abuse?

Rhetoric around a recent EU vote has been so extreme that it’s not always clear the opposing sides are discussing the same thing.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 09/07/2026

A video that appears to show former taoiseach Leo Varadkar complaining about immigrants uses real footage, but swaps out the audio and subtitles to deceive viewers into thinking he is saying something else. jrnl.ie/7096180

jrnl.ie

Debunked: 'Cheapfake' video shared online makes Leo Varadkar appear to complain about immigrants

The actual footage was taken from an interview looking back at Brexit.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 08/07/2026

False claims that Irish political leaders had visited the island of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have circulated online in a faked document that purports to be official government correspondence. jrnl.ie/7095052

jrnl.ie

Debunked: A fake government memo claims Irish leaders visited Epstein's private island

Fake correspondence names 14 Irish leaders, though gets basic facts wrong.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 08/07/2026

With Europe sweltering in a heatwave this summer, climate sceptics are trying to push the idea that the recent high temperatures are normal.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 03/07/2026

An anti-immigration activist has falsely suggested that Muslims are entitled to exclusive financial offers, and do not have to pay taxes on mortgages. buff.ly/2ampaCk

jrnl.ie

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 30/06/2026

Starting this week, anyone ordering goods, including clothes, electronics and makeup, will be liable to charges of up to €3 per item, unless they come from another European Union country. jrnl.ie/7085312t

jrnl.ie

Explainer: How do the new charges on imports from non-EU countries work?

Unique items will be charged €3, but no extra charge applies to multiples of the same product.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 25/06/2026

Images that appear to show the Israeli prime minister wearing an Argentina jersey at the World Cup in the United States are AI-generated. jrnl.ie/7081458

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Picture of Netanyahu supporting Argentina at the World Cup is AI-generated

The Israeli prime minister was in Jerusalem on the day of the match in Texas.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 20/06/2026

A US government release about the existence of secret biological laboratories — or, at least, something that initially looks like that — was announced by the Director of National Intelligence. But the declassified information is likely to underwhelm anyone who reads it. jrnl.ie/7076056

jrnl.ie

The head of US intelligence has been pushing misinformation about Ukrainian 'biolabs'. What are they?

The Trump administration has a history of disappointing releases of confidential material: on aliens, Covid-19 and Jefferey Epstein.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 17/06/2026

False claims that Georgians are the largest group of asylum seekers in Ireland have been shared online, along with claims that the EU Migration Pact is a “con-job”. jrnl.ie/7072283

jrnl.ie

Debunked: The government didn't engineer a crisis by bringing Georgian asylum seekers to Ireland

International protection applicants from Georgia dropped from 2,459 in 2022, to 638 by 2024.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 12/06/2026

Two photos have been shared widely online, including by far-right influencers, falsely claiming to show Stephen Ogilvie, the victim of a knife attack in Belfast on Monday night. jrnl.ie/7069108

jrnl.ie

Debunked: Images of a heavily wounded man in hospital do not show the Belfast knife attack victim

The victim’s family have asked for privacy.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 12/06/2026

A misleading visualisation of Ireland’s weather, posted by MMA coach John Kavanagh, was shared to suggest that Ireland’s climate is steady. It instead shows that four of the five hottest spring seasons on record here have occurred since 2023. jrnl.ie/7064300

jrnl.ie

Debunked: A misleading graph of the warmest springs on record actually reveals Ireland is getting hotter

A graph of temperatures looks almost flat… if you exclude the data that would make it jagged.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 10/06/2026

Police in Northern Ireland have denied rumours that they were looking for a second suspect who took part in a knife attack on Monday night that left a man without an eye. jrnl.ie/7066832

jrnl.ie

Debunked: There is no ‘second suspect’ for the Belfast knife attack

The claim was shared ona livestream by an anti-immigratoin activist.

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 06/06/2026

A spirited radio debate last week left listeners befuddled as a doctor and the chair of the Sunbed Association contradicted each other on medical research. jrnl.ie/7059129

jrnl.ie

FactCheck: What the scientific studies say about the harms of sunbed use

Is all the data against sunbeds old and outdated?

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 05/06/2026

Footage showing party at a back garden in a Dublin suburb have been shared online along with misleading captions indicating that the government is building housing estates specifically for African migrants. jrnl.ie/7061859

jrnl.ie

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The Journal FactCheck @factcheck.thejournal.ie · 04/06/2026

A viral voice note claiming a woman in Co Derry had been drugged by touching a business card given to her by “foreign nationals” has been spread widely online. There is no evidence that the story is real, or even scientifically possible. jrnl.ie/7060367

jrnl.ie

Debunked: No evidence a woman was drugged with a doused business card in Co Derry

Urban legends about drugs that quickly knock people unconscious by skin contact are common, but implausible.

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