Main Page
Bullshitopedia exists to do for falsehood what Wikipedia does for fact: document it, source it, and never let it quietly disappear, fact checking and proving evidence as to where non-bullshit on that topic and subject is found.
From ancient forgeries and propaganda to today's viral posts and manufactured outrage, we build the permanent record — what was claimed, who said it, how far and fast it spread, and the verifiable evidence, linked to Wikipedia and other credible sources, that proves it false. Most fact-checkers issue a verdict and move on. We keep the whole story: the claim, the debunking, the correction, and everything in between, so the pattern of how lies take hold — and how the truth eventually catches up — is visible to everyone.
Our aim is to become the first stop for anyone checking whether something is true, and the lasting record of what wasn't.
This is a non-partisan place. That does not mean we will not surface more bullshit from one political wing, one side or another..., particularly until we have enough editors (like you) who are willing to step forward and ensure that society isn't guided by bullshit, but by truth.
High-Priority Fact Checks
Updated October 26, 2026. Each claim links to a full entry with sources.
- Claim: Touchscreen machines are switching early voters' votes in Texas, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.
- Status: Unsupported. Officials in Texas, South Carolina and Ohio report no unusual problems; experts say such reports are touchscreen input errors that voters can see and correct on the review screen and paper ballot.
- Claim: Ballots marked by a poll worker will be disqualified.
- Status: False. Many states require poll workers to initial or code ballots. Officials in North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois say these markings do not affect whether a vote counts.
- Claim: A video shows a 2026 voting machine refusing to let a voter pick the Republican.
- Status: False. The video splices a 2019 Mississippi Republican primary runoff with a 2014 Virginia race.
- Claim: A former student accuses Texas Senate nominee James Talarico of abuse.
- Status: Manipulated media. The real former student says the video is AI and not him; researchers link it to the Russian network Storm-1516.
- Claim: Talarico was secretly hospitalized in an Ohio psychiatric facility.
- Status: False. He had the flu; the facility says he was never there.
- Claim: Brazil's runoff was stolen because Bolsonaro's vote total fell.
- Status: False. The viral video showed a partial count. Final results gave Bolsonaro 3.7 million more votes than in the first round; Lula won.
- Claim: Muslim migrants caused the French riots and burned church steeples.
- Status: Unsupported. French authorities have not linked immigrants to the rioting and no houses of worship were directly attacked; the "steeple" was a town hall bell tower in Limoges.
- Claim: Zelenskyy bought a $42 million nuclear bunker in Nova Scotia.
- Status: False. The story ran on a week-old impostor of the Toronto Sun website; the newspaper says it is fake.
- Claim: Videos show China seizing Indian territory in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
- Status: False. The Indian Army says the trucks were authorized cross-border trade at Nathu La and the video of a general was a deepfake.
- Claim: Prime Minister Mark Carney endorses a crypto investment platform.
- Status: Manipulated media. AI deepfake ads have drawn Canadians into scams costing some victims nearly $1 million.
Featured article
The War of the Worlds broadcast caused nationwide panic
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles's radio drama The War of the Worlds supposedly convinced millions of Americans that Martians had landed in New Jersey. The next morning The New York Times reported "Radio Listeners in Panic," and a 1940 Princeton study put the number of frightened listeners at 1.2 million. The legend has been retold for nearly a century as proof that mass media can make whole populations believe anything.
The evidence tells a different story. A ratings survey taken that night found only about 2 percent of respondents listening, and they said they were hearing a play. Claims of deaths and mass flight were never substantiated, and newspapers losing advertising to radio had every reason to portray the new medium as dangerous. Some listeners were genuinely scared, but there was no nationwide panic.
The irony is the lesson: a story about the dangers of media misinformation became one of the most durable pieces of media misinformation of the twentieth century. As deepfakes and AI fakes raise new fears, it is worth remembering how a sensational account, repeated often enough and dressed in scientific authority, became accepted fact.
Did you know...
- ... that the famous 1934 "Surgeon's Photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster was a toy submarine fitted with a sculpted head, made to get revenge on the Daily Mail?
- ... that lawyers in Mata v. Avianca were fined after citing six court cases invented by ChatGPT, which had assured them the cases were real?
- ... that India's army traced a deepfake of one of its generals to a 2023 press briefing in Kashmir in which he never mentioned China?
In the news
- Brazil — President Lula wins re-election in the October 25 runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro. Viral videos claiming fraud relied on a partial vote count.
- France — After the worst riots in years over living costs and school funding, President Macron condemns "foreign manipulation of information," including unsupported claims blaming migrants and AI-generated images such as a fake Charlie Hebdo cover.
- United States — With early voting under way before the November 3 midterms, election officials rebut viral rumors about vote-switching machines and poll worker markings, while researchers link a deepfake targeting Texas Senate nominee James Talarico to a Russian influence network.
- India — The Indian Army debunks a coordinated campaign claiming Chinese incursions in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, including an AI deepfake of a senior commander.