Venezuela’s Phantom Bounty for the Epstein Files
PLUS: California Not Looking to Leave the Union Over U.S. Support for Israel; Instagram Falsely Accused of Violating Users’ Privacy; Russia Targets NewsGuard — Again
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In today’s edition, we debunk the falsehood that Venezuela is offering a $50 million reward for the unreleased “Epstein files,” after the Trump administration offered a similar reward for Venezuelan leader Maduro’s arrest. We also show how pro-Iranian accounts are spreading the false claim that California Gov. Newsom is threatening to secede over U.S. support for Israel; we debunk the charge that Instagram’s new map feature automatically reveals a user’s location; and we detail how a Russian influence operation is generating new hoaxes about NewsGuard, including by impersonating us.
Plus: The latest installment of NewsGuard’s video series demonstrates how to use a free online archive tool to debunk false claims in minutes. Please share this newsletter with family and friends who may need these tips to avoid falling for falsehoods.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. Venezuela Did Not Offer $50 Million Reward for Epstein Files
By Hope Talbot
What happened: Social media users are falsely claiming that the government of Venezuela is offering a $50 million reward for the unreleased “Epstein files,” referring to the FBI files purportedly relating to the crimes of the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Context: On Aug. 7, the U.S. State Department boosted a reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration said it would pay as much as $50 million for Maduro’s arrest, up from a $25 million reward offered under the Biden administration.
The State Department alleges that Maduro, who has served as Venezuela’s president since 2013, is involved in drug trafficking and is affiliated with the Cartel de los Soles, a Venezuelan drug cartel.
A closer look: In the wake of the increased reward, social media users on both the right and the left started claiming that Venezuela had retaliated by offering a $50 million reward for the release of the Epstein files, which some users speculate could incriminate President Donald Trump, a former Epstein friend.
Conservative commentator Jackson Hinkle said in an X post, “BREAKING: VENEZUELA has offered $50 MILLION for the UNRELEASED EPSTEIN FILES.” The post garnered 4 million views and 100,000 likes in four days.
Left-wing U.K. site Skwawkbox.org published an article titled, “Venezuela responds to Trump’s $50m bounty on Maduro – with $50m reward for unreleased Epstein files.”
Actually: The claim that Venezuela is offering a reward for the Epstein files is baseless.
In an Aug. 7 Telegram post, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil stated that the Trump administration’s increased reward for Maduro’s arrest was a “desperate distraction” after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi “promised a nonexistent ‘secret list’ of Epstein.” However, Gil did not say anything about issuing a reward for the Epstein files.
A NewsGuard review of official Venezuelan government statements, press releases, and social media accounts did not find any announcement that the government is offering $50 million for Epstein-related documents.
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2. Pro-Iran Sources Claim California Is Seceding from the Union Due to U.S. Support for Israel
What happened: Pro-Iran and Iranian state-affiliated media sources are falsely claiming that Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will declare the state’s independence due to the Trump administration’s support for Israel.
Context: The claim circulated amid reports that the Trump administration was considering denying federal disaster aid to U.S. states that boycott Israeli companies, a plan that the administration walked back following bipartisan criticism, according to Reuters.
A closer look: In early August 2025, pro-Iran accounts on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook claimed that Newsom issued a statement calling for the secession of California from the U.S., quoting him stating, “America has become a tool of genocide in the hands of Israel and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
The claim was also advanced by Palestinian newspaper Al-Hadaf, which said that Newsom’s supposed statement “reflect[s] escalating internal disagreements within the United States over international policies and the complex relationship with Israel.”
Actually: There is no evidence Newsom ever issued any such statement.
A NewsGuard review of the California State Government website, news reports, and Newsom’s official social media accounts found no evidence of any such statement.
Moreover, such a move would not be legal. The official website for the California Legislative Analyst's Office, a nonpartisan government agency, notes that California’s state constitution states that “The State of California is an inseparable part of the United States of America,” and that “The U.S. Constitution includes neither a mechanism for a state to secede from the United States nor a provision for a single state to be an autonomous nation within the United States.”
NewsGuard sent an email to Newsom’s office seeking comment on the claim but did not receive a response.
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3. Instagram Falsely Accused of Violating User Privacy with New Map Feature
What happened: Social media users are falsely claiming that a new map feature on Instagram automatically shares a user’s precise location unless they turn it off, thus violating users’ privacy.
Context: On Aug. 6, Instagram introduced a series of new features, including an “Instagram Map” that allows users to “responsibly share” locations with friends, according to an August 2025 press release from Instagram owner Meta.
A closer look: Social media users soon began claiming that Instagram was automatically sharing their locations without their opt-in — which many users said they viewed as a violation of their privacy.
Threads user @steph.a.force posted, “Y’all this is serious… Instagram has just launched a Map (similar to Snapchat’s) and they’re showing your location to everyone.” The post garnered 49,000 views and 510 shares in one day.
X account @Taiga_Chama said in a post, “This s--- can seriously dox you make sure to check your settings and turn that s--- off or don’t give the app location permissions.” The post received 23,000 views and 180 reposts in one day.
Actually: Instagram’s new map feature does not automatically share users’ locations.
The August 2025 Meta press release stated, “You can opt in to sharing your last active location with friends you choose, and you can turn it off anytime.”
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, responding to multiple users’ posts on Threads, said that the feature will not share users’ locations unless they choose to do so. Moreover, Mosseri said that the feature required “double consent” to be activated, meaning that users must reaffirm that they want to share their location after first turning the feature on.
A NewsGuard review of the feature on five accounts found that location sharing was, in fact, automatically disabled.
Users who opt into the feature see the message: “If you share, your precise location updates every time you open Instagram. It disappears if you don’t open the app for 24 hours.”
Moreover, users can specify which categories of people that they want to share their location with, such as users they follow, close friends, or select contacts.
Meta did not respond to NewsGuard’s two emails requesting comment on the matter.
4. Russian Campaign Targets NewsGuard — Again
What happened: Soon after NewsGuard reported that a Russian propaganda campaign published a series of videos styled to look like authentic NewsGuard reports that made false claims, the campaign struck again.
Context: On July 15, NewsGuard published a report documenting how the Russian malign influence campaign known as Matroyoshka (a reference to Russian stacking dolls) is targeting the pro-West government of the Eastern European nation of Moldova with false claims ahead of its upcoming elections.
Matroyoshka then created fabricated videos accusing NewsGuard of corruption, including the claim that editors were paid $150,000 to publish the Moldova report and that NewsGuard fired the analysts who wrote the report because Moldova had “commissioned” the stories.
For more on this campaign, see NewsGuard’s Aug. 6 commentary.
A closer look: On Aug. 11, the Russian campaign released a new video, this one styled as a supposed NewsGuard rebuttal purporting to refute an earlier hoax video alleging that NewsGuard was paid by Moldovan authorities to publish its report about Moldova. This time, the video quoted NewsGuard supposedly saying that it received “only 100 million Euros” from Moldovan government organizations, not “300 million euros” that was alleged earlier.
Zooming out: The supposed NewsGuard rebuttal to the earlier fabricated video is yet another fabrication, and shows how Russia’s well-funded propaganda apparatus aims to obfuscate and to overwhelm factcheckers, with the ultimate goal of eroding trust entirely.
5. How to Use Archival Tools for Tracking Webpage Changes
This video is part of a series offering readers practical tips on how to spot false claims spreading online. Each short tutorial breaks down real-life examples of deepfakes and other fabrications and tells you about the tools you can use to spot falsehoods in your social media feeds. We hope you will share these videos with family and friends who need these tips to avoid falling for false claims.
Today’s tutorial shows how to use the free online archival tool, the Wayback Machine, to track changes to webpages. This can help you debunk false claims by revealing when website changes were made, such as when a politician changed their online profile or a company removed a statement from its website — because sometimes, timing is everything. Watch below:
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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