Do you have a favorite sports star? "shocked fans" or "shake" League consists of "public" or "flatly" Refuse to wear LGBT rainbow armbands because it will turn the tables "Enter the political circus"? No, that’s not true: In posts on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages targeting American and European audiences, claims about at least 95 football, soccer, basketball, baseball and hockey players were made in Vietnam. It’s part of a clickbait operation that uses artificial intelligence tools that fact-checkers have dubbed “Vietnam spam.”
An example of a post about Los Angeles Chargers player Ladd McConkey (archived here) posted at "Strengthen heroes" January 21, 2026 page. Other athletes targeted with false claims include:
Carlos Alcaraz, Josh Allen, Brandon Aubrey, Bear Bachmeier, Saquon Barkley, Carson Baker, Connor Bedard, Nick Bosa, Keshun Butt, Tyler Buchner, Joe Burrow, Trinidad Chambliss, Jalen Chatfield , Keon Coleman, Audie Crooks, Jaden Daniels, Sam Darnold, Alex De Minaur, Oscar Delp, Stefon Diggs, AJ DiBanza, Isaiah Evans, Enzo Fernandez, Joe Flacco, Dayton Ford Seth, Donnie Freeman, Freddie Freeman, Marcus Freeman, Myles Garrett, Coco Goff, Jared Goff, Draymond Green, Dre Greenlaw, Denny Hamlin, Justin Herbert, Trevyan Henderson, Nizia Hunter, Aidan Hutchinson, Carly Isay-Gordon, Delvin James Jr., Justin Jefferson, Daniel Jones, Mikael Kamara, Alex Karaban, Spencer Knight, Cooper Kupp, Jeter Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence, Xaivian Lee, Jaden Mayawa, Archie Manning, Mitch Marner, John Marte, Austin Matthews, Baker Mayfield, Ladd McConkey, Connor McDavid, Fernando Mendoza, Dante Moore, Belen Morton, Puka Nakua, Bo ·Nix, Martin Odegaard, Ortega Owe, Manny Pacquiao, Danica Patrick, Keya Peet, Michael Penix Jr., Paddy Pimblett, Dak Prescott, Jaden Cuitens, Marcel Reed, Austin Riley, Aaron Rodgers, Deion Sanders, Julian Saine, LaNorris Sayles, Austin Simmons, Ty Simpson, Jaxon Smith-Njiba, Jeremiah Smith, Harrison Smith, Stephen A. Smith, Trey Smith, Gunners Tocton, CJ Stroud, Patrick Sultan, Nick Suzuki, Jonathan Taylor, Mike Tomlin, Tuli Tupulotu, Virgil Van Dijk, TJ Watt, Caleb Williams, Caleb Wilson, Lamin Yamal and Kevin Young.
Here’s what the post looks like on Facebook at the time of writing:
McConkey’s post included a false quote that read:
"I don’t care if the world thinks I’m controversial – forcing players to wear LGBT armbands would turn football into a political circus. I play for the Chargers, for my team, for the game, not for any action."
Lead Stories discovered posts containing nearly identical false information about 95 sports stars refusing to wear LGBT armbands on the field during games. Armbands supporting LGBT people have caused controversy in some cases in recent years, such as during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (archived here), but a Google search for LGBT armbands (archived here) turned up no documentation indicating that any of them had made such a statement, or that their teams or leagues required them to wear the armbands. The search did turn up many examples of false claims.
Meta-transparency data for Facebook fan pages promoting these claims show that they are run by Vietnam.
The posts included links to articles on Vietnamese websites. The terms and conditions page (archived here) of the website hosting McConkey’s article (archived here) acknowledges that it is based in Vietnam.
A visit to the site’s home page (archived here) revealed that the site publishes hundreds of false stories every day, all of which have major signs that they were generated by artificial intelligence tools.
Lead Stories and other fact-checking organizations have extensively investigated Vietnam spam operations, and we’ve published dozens of fact-checks on these false claims (read them) here.) A more in-depth discussion can be found in our article Prebunk: Beware of Fake Fan Pages Spreading False Stories About Your Favorite Celebrities – How to Spot “Vietnamese Spam”.