A month-by-month look at the misinformation that caught our attention in a busy news year

A contentious presidential election, two devastating hurricanes, the Baltimore bridge collapse: It was a busy news year, and where news goes, misinformation follows. 

Sometimes it even precedes it, as you’ll see below.

The year’s events prompted dozens of false claims that PolitiFact fact-checked. There were also false claims about what should have been more lighthearted topics, such as a solar eclipse, the Summer Olympics and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Here's a look back at the claims that caught our attention.

"Disease X" was a social media misinformation trend early in the year, unsurprising with its vague and scary-sounding moniker. It’s a name the World Health Organization adopted years ago for an unknown disease that could emerge and threaten to cause a new pandemic.

Disease X had been in the news before — we debunked a claim about it in August 2023 — but it reemerged in social media feeds because of "Preparing for Disease X," a January panel discussion at the World Economic Forum, which is often a target of conspiracy theories.

WHO Inspector General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged world leaders to better prepare for potential new pandemics, and to learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some social media users saw that as evidence that the global elite was planning another pandemic, which, of course, is False. 

Disease X also was part of another fact-check of a social media claim that distorted results of a Chinese COVID-19 study, in which some falsely claimed a new strain was created with a 100% kill rate and tied it to Disease X.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s visit to Moscow to interview Russia President Vladimir Putin spurred misinformation this month.

Much of  the misinformation originated with Putin, who made several baseless claims that Carlson didn’t challenge. We fact-checked three of Putin’s conspiracy theories involving Ukraine and who is really running the U.S.

But the interview also spawned two fact-checks on claims from social media users. One claim fabricated a statement from Putin and alleged he said he found the U.S. southern border situation "ironically amusing." Another baselessly claimed Ukraine put Carlson on a hit list for doing the interview.

The fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is pictured March 31, 2024. Divers assisted crews with the complicated and meticulous operation of removing steel and concrete. (AP)

After an electrical failure knocked out its navigation system, the Dali, a 947-foot long Singapore-flagged cargo ship, crashed into a support column of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Six construction workers on the bridge fell to their deaths in the Patapsco River and the accident halted the Port of Baltimore’s commercial shipping traffic for several months before it reopened fully in June.

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled the disaster an accident in its preliminary investigation released in May. The Justice Department in October announced a civil settlement with Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Private Ltd., the the Dali’s owner and operator respectively, for nearly $102 million to cover federal cleanup costs.

Many social media users were unconvinced that the crash was an accident, however. We fact-checked 12 false claims related to the bridge collapse.

Some claims said video of the ship’s turn into the bridge column was evidence that the crash was intentional, an allegation authorites rebutted at the time. Another claimed video footage captured an explosion on the bridge, but that video was filmed in Crimea. 

One falsely claimed the ship’s captain was Ukrainian; another falsely said a Chinese company owned the ship. One said the company that owned the ship was led by Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, who died mysteriously. (It wasn’t and she didn’t).

Perhaps the silliest claim was one that tied a photo of a black figure on a bridge associated with the Mothman myth and a 1967 bridge collapse to the Baltimore accident.  

On April 8, a total solar eclipse passed over Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, treating millions of people in its path to the rare event when the moon blocks the sun during the day. Even U.S. residents not in its path could see a partial eclipse.

As people flocked to the internet to make travel plans or find out how to view the event, others signed onto social media to spread conspiracy theories about it.

Government officials’ warnings in late March to people in cities in the eclipse’s path to prepare for large crowds were twisted into warnings to prepare for catastrophes. NASA research to launch three sounding rockets into the moon’s shadow during the eclipse to study how it affects the Earth’s upper atmosphere also was twisted by some. NASA was not shooting rockets at three moons in an effort to create a mass psychosis. The eclipse also did not leave a trail of chemtrails (those aren’t real),  it didn’t cause massive 85-foot waves moving from Antarctica to South Africa, and it’s not why CERN activated a powerful particle accelerator on the same day.

These were slower months for misinformation, but with several social media fact-checks involving sports figures. Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s Benedictine College commencement speech, in which he discussed his Catholic values, was the subject of four claims we checked. 

WNBA rookie star Caitlin Clark’s name came up a lot. We also checked four claims about her, three of which were about her Olympic women’s team snub.

Then-candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage July 13, 2024, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. (AP)

This month was dominated by sketchy social media claims about the July 13 assassination attempt on now President-elect Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally.

We wrote 22 fact-checks on this topic, including several about the Secret Service. One false claim said the shooting was staged by the Secret Service; others said a Secret Service sniper was told to stand down, or agents were photographed smiling as they escorted Trump offstage (that image was altered).

Some claims were about the seriousness of Trump’s injury. He was shot in the ear, but some social media users falsely said his ear grew back quickly and he was photographed golfing days later apparently unwounded.

Most claims were about the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, whom a sniper fatally shot. Among those, we checked false claims that he was transgender; wearing a kippah, or Jewish head covering; was a registered Democrat; and that he worked for the investment company BlackRock. Still others identified a gunman other than Crooks; Crooks acted alone.

Misinformation about Project 2025, a policy proposal for the next Republican president led by the conservative Heritage Foundation, also was rampant early in the month. We debunked several claims that said the proposal would eliminate the  Occupational Safety and Health Administration and overtime wages, Social Security and disability payments, and force women to carry "period passports" to track their menstrual cycles.

Claims about Project 2025 flowed continuously throughout the presidential campaign and had a starring role at August’s Democratic National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the Paris Summer Olympics were popular misinformation targets. (Although the Republican National Convention was held the month before, it wasn’t the center of much misinformation.)

As Democrats gathered in the Windy City, some on social media claimed women attending the convention didn’t have their own bathrooms. Our reporters onsite found there were 21 women’s restrooms, 26 for men and five designed as gender-neutral at the United Center. Another post claimed the Chicago River was dyed red to celebrate abortion, a false claim that stemmed from a satire site. 

The Olympics misinformation centered on Algerian women’s boxer Imane Khelif. She won the gold medal, but there were many unsubstantiated claims that she is transgender and ineligible to compete in the Olympics.

A false claim that U.S. gymnast Simone Biles retired and announced her pregnancy drew a lot of interest from PolitiFact readers. Other false claims surfaced about reaction to the Games’ opening ceremony, which some felt mocked Christianity.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris debate Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)

Politics dominated this month. A second assassination attempt against Trump, his only debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s endorsement flooded the misinformation scene.

Prosecutors say Ryan Wesley Routh plotted to kill Trump Sept. 15 as Trump played golf at his West Palm Beach, Florida, club. Secret Service agents spotted Routh before Trump came near where Routh lay in wait and no shots were fired. Routh is awaiting trial and pleaded not guilty.

We checked false claims that Routh is a "proud LBGTQ+ member,"  appeared in a commercial for the investment company BlackRock and that the assassination attempt was staged. We also examined Routh’s party affiliation and his connection to Ukraine in response to social media claims.

The Harris-Trump debate, which we fact-checked, also prompted social media claims, two about the ABC debate moderators — including one that they were fired for their poor performance — and a Pants on Fire claim that Harris wore audio earrings at the debate.

After the debate, Swift said on Instagram that she’d endorsed Harris; Swift noted she was a victim of AI misinformation that said she had endorsed Trump. After Swift’s endorsement, we fact-checked a dozen false claims about the supposed negative consequences of her endorsement. She was not banned from X or the NFL, nor did she lose concert ticket sales and endorsements because of her Harris support.

False social media claims about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the federal government’s response, took center stage this month.

People are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which left destruction across six states in late September, and Hurricane Milton, which struck Florida in October, and misinformation about the storms surely doesn’t help. We checked 26 false claims in all.

Many of the false claims were about FEMA, long a target of conspiracy theories. Some people falsely claimed survivors were receiving only $750 from the federal government, and that the money was a loan. That money is initial funding for immediate needs, but aid is not limited to that amount, officials said.

Other people claimed FEMA was confiscating or blocking supplies — it wasn’t. We checked several Pants on Fire claims that alleged the storms were geoengineered using cloud seeding and were directed at red states. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., helped push the ridiculous notion that a nefarious "they" can control the weather.

We fact-checked a firehose of misinformation about the 2024 presidential election, dating to the start of early voting in October.

The claims focused on vote counts, election fraud, mail ballots, voting machines, noncitizen voting and early voting.

Trump falsely claimed on election night that "cheating was happening" in Pennsylvania, a state he later won. Most claims about election fraud from Republican-leaning accounts faded as positive results for Trump came in, but those soon shifted to complaints about late vote counts in down ballot races. Left-leaning accounts then began to question the presidential results and said Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service must be responsible.

For more on this, check out our analysis of how PolitiFact covered election claims this year.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione is escorted into Blair County Courthouse, Dec. 10, 2024, in Hollidaysburg, Pa. (AP)

The month isn’t over, but so far we’ve fact-checked claims about Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter.

Mangione was charged in Thompson’s Dec. 4 death in New York City, which happened the morning the executive was to attend his company’s investor conference there. After a nationwide search, Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

We’ve debunked a supposed manifesto that some falsely say Mangione posted on Substack; YouTube videos supposedly posted by the suspect; a claim that Thompson was set to testify against Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for insider trading; and that a video showed New Yorkers dancing in the streets to celebrate the shooting.

Biden pardoned his son Dec. 1, after months of saying he wouldn’t, earning a Full Flop from PolitiFact. We also fact-checked false claims that President-elect Donald Trump was impeached for trying to investigate the crimes Hunter Biden was pardoned for, and that former President George H.W. Bush had also pardoned his son.

Birthright citizenship has been a hot topic this month after Trump vowed to end the right enshrined in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. We checked false claims that the amendment was never challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court — it was in 1898 — and that ending birthright citizenship would mean four of Trump’s children wouldn’t be U.S. citizens.