exist, many with different details. But the false allegation at the core is the same: that Ms Swinson's husband personally benefits from European Union funds and this is the main reason why she is against Brexit.

Where did it come from?

The first trace we can find of the story was in a tweet by an account called @SammyPants6 on 30 September, which showed a number of screenshots.

But the story really went viral a few hours later when a tweet by an account called "HenryVIII" was retweeted more than 1,000 times.

Image copyright Twitter

Some elements of the tweet are correct. Duncan Hames, who was an MP from 2010-2015, works for the UK branch of Transparency International.

The Berlin office of the non-governmental organisation received a grant of 4m euros (£3.4m) from thelongstanding supporters of the European Union

BBC Trending spoke to "Henry VIII" via Twitter direct message. The person behind the account claims to be an Italian man named Dino living in north Wales.

The account mainly shares posts written in Italian and about Italian politics, but we were not able to independently verify his identity.

"I wanted to know why Jo was so pro-EU," he wrote. "I was told to always follow the money." He says he posted the tweet after looking into Transparency International's financial accounts, which are published online.

Two days later the story jumped from Twitter to a far larger social network. The following post appeared on the Facebook page of Michael Barton, a freelance writer based in London:

The post sticks to the same facts in the tweet by