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14 rumors we've investigated about US-China relations
Sep. 27th, 2026 02:00![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
snopes_feedU.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is a good reason to examine the many rumors about the countries' relationship.
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25 claims about US-Canada relations we've investigated since Trump was reelected
Sep. 26th, 2026 18:00snopes_feedWith the countries' friendship under strain, we dug into our archives for stories about their relationship since Trump's reelection.
snopes_feedThe clip circulated as global leaders convened at the United Nations' annual meeting in New York.
Is Christopher Nolan directing 'Star Wars' movie about Darth Vader?
Sep. 25th, 2026 21:33snopes_feedAccording to the rumor, Hayden Christensen would reprise his starring role in "a darker, R-rated exploration of Vader during his peak Imperial era."
Netanyahu compared Oct. 7 attack to '16 9/11s'
Sep. 25th, 2026 21:18snopes_feedThe Israeli prime minister made the comparison between Hamas' attack on Israel and the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a U.N. speech.
Is photo of Donald and Melania Trump frowning real?
Sep. 25th, 2026 20:17snopes_feedThe photo also includes Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, during their visit to the U.S.
Was US the only nation to vote against UN resolution promoting women's equality?
Sep. 25th, 2026 20:13snopes_feedThe vote took place two months after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. organization dedicated to gender equality.
snopes_feedThe Israeli prime minister isn't the first person to have this statement attributed to him.
eff_feedEFF legal intern Simar Kaur also contributed to this article.
Americans’ First Amendment right to equal access to official government statements is violated by the Trump administration’s use of Truth Social’s preferential treatment scheme, which blocks people who won’t pay Trump’s company up to $100,000 a month early access to government news, EFF told a federal court.
The First Amendment guarantees that members of the public have equal access to public officials’ public comments, we reminded the court.
EFF filed an amicus brief in support of a motion for a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by The Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against President Trump and other administration officials. The lawsuit challenges their use of Truth Social as their primary social media method of making official announcements when that platform provides people who pay a fee for early access to such posts.
Trump uses his Truth Social account as his primary means of communicating with the public, including to announce military operations and ceasefires, foreign and domestic policy, and the removal and appointment of heads of federal agencies. Earlier in the year, Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, announced “Truth API,” a service that provides investors early access to “market-moving” messages from the president and other high-ranking officials for a fee of up to $100,000 per month.
The plaintiffs, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept, contend that the president and other officials’ preferred use of Truth Social with this service violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The plaintiffs are asking the court to immediately prevent the president from posting on Truth Social in a manner that allows him to profit from selling early access to government information.
EFF’s amicus makes two main points.
First, the brief establishes that social media is pervasively used by government officials and agencies as a medium for official communication with the public, including to disseminate critical public safety information and make official announcements.
Second, the brief explains that the challenged practice violates the First Amendment, which guarantees a right to access public officials’ public comments on equal terms with other members of the press and public. Giving some people preferential access must at a minimum be reasonably justified to satisfy First Amendment scrutiny, a test the administration does not meet.
Lining the president and his company's pockets is not a legitimate government interest for restricting timely access to the government's statements. Further, the fact that the public could ultimately access the information from other, less direct channels does not eliminate the need for First Amendment scrutiny; mere delays in timely access still trigger First Amendment scrutiny.
EFF has been advancing the First Amendment right of equal access to government’s public social media posts since at least 2018. We’ve argued that the right of equal access, which is well established in offline contexts, must apply to official government social media posts as well. This case presents an excellent opportunity for a court to directly adopt that position.
Did Canada's Mark Carney say he was prepared for US invasion?
Sep. 25th, 2026 16:47snopes_feedThe claim spread from a recent New York Times interview with Carney, which paraphrased his remarks.
28 authentic Trump quotes from our archives
Sep. 25th, 2026 15:00snopes_feedFrom calling the Iran war “small potatoes” to saying "sometimes you need a dictator," we compiled our coverage of the president's real statements.
Did Newsom 'forcing' closure of California refineries cause US gas prices to spike?
Sep. 25th, 2026 13:00snopes_feedPeople online alleged the California governor's actions, rather than the Iran war, were to blame for rising gas prices nationwide.
8 Harvey Weinstein rumors, fact-checked
Sep. 25th, 2026 10:00snopes_feedThe disgraced Hollywood producer was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual assault on Sept. 23, 2026.
Did Pope Leo XIV and Vance trade blows about compassion?
Sep. 24th, 2026 23:04snopes_feedSocial media users shared a story saying Leo's alleged response to the U.S. vice president served as a "powerful moral challenge."
Unpacking allegations FCC Chair Brendan Carr was in 'sex trafficking cult'
Sep. 24th, 2026 21:02snopes_feedThe organization was an Alcoholics Anonymous group in Washington, D.C. Former members said Carr was part of the group, but wasn't abusive.
DraftKings Is Using AI to Supercharge the Harms of Online Behavioral Advertising
Sep. 24th, 2026 20:11eff_feedOnline sports betting company DraftKings is using AI to target customers who are most likely to place losing bets and respond to gambling promotions. This kind of targeting is a form of online behavioral advertising, which is when companies personalize the ads they show you based on the data they’ve collected about you. The more data a company has, the more personalized the ad can be. While DraftKings is using AI to supercharge the harmful effects of online behavioral advertising, EFF has long argued that all behavioral advertising should be banned.
According to the New York Times, DraftKings is using its customers’ betting records to train a machine learning model to find losing gamblers. Once found, DraftKings sends these customers targeted advertising designed to lure them back to the site to place more bets—bets that DraftKings thinks will be losing ones. DraftKings has a business incentive to keep losing gamblers coming back to their site, because these are the users actually making DraftKings money. Unfortunately, those considered “problem gamblers” (people who repeatedly gamble despite harm to themselves, their finances, and their relationships) are highly likely to be targeted by this model. By re-engaging these individuals through targeted promotions aimed at keeping them on the platform, DraftKings is capitalizing on their vulnerability for profit instead of mitigating their risk.
Predatory online behavioral advertising isn’t new, but companies’ use of AI to process data and target customers has magnified its harms. Online behavioral advertising incentivizes the collection of vast quantities of data to power ad tech. Adding AI into the mix means that even more data is collected to train and refine models. Because AI operates as a black box, the humans building the models can rarely predict which data points are the most useful to the AI, driving them to continuously collect more data. AI also allows companies to process enormous data sets much faster, and, as a result, supercharges the harms of online behavioral advertising.
A direct consequence of online behavioral advertising is that it provides the data the surveillance industry needs to run. Data collected for targeted placement of ads is being sold to insurance companies, banks, and state and federal government law enforcement agencies such as CBP. ICE is also taking an interest in the data fueling ad tech: earlier this year, ICE published a Request for Information “seeking information to better understand how the industry’s commercial Big Data and Ad Tech providers can directly support investigations activities.”
DraftKings seems to be using solely “first party data” to target their ads, meaning that they’re using only the data they collect directly from their users and are not buying any additional data from third parties to fuel their machine learning model. This highlights how policy solutions that only limit third-party data sharing and selling would not be enough to prevent these predatory advertisements. Rather, policymakers must ban online behavioral ads.
What DraftKings is doing with their targeted promotions is just one example of how online behavioral advertising causes real harm to real people. But there are ways to take back control over your own data: EFF offers resources such as our Surveillance Self Defense project, along with other tips for how you can protect yourself on mobile apps and on websites.
DraftKings’ use of AI to target losing gamblers illustrates how ad tech evolves and how companies find new ways to use our data against us. This is why EFF believes that all behavioral advertising should be banned. If companies can’t send personalized ads, they’ll have less incentive to collect the behavioral data powering them.
Did Obama say press is supposed to be skeptical during final news conference?
Sep. 24th, 2026 19:16snopes_feedTrump's critics have compared his hostility toward the media with how the former president handled journalists.
Why USDA announced recall of more than 167K pounds of meat
Sep. 24th, 2026 17:06snopes_feedStar Meat Delivery Inc. recalled the products because they were produced "without the benefit of federal inspection,” the USDA said.