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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

War & conflict fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about war & conflict. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,848 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYWar & conflict

Image of a rocket launch attack by China in which 158 Indian soldiers were killed

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post paired an image of burning army vehicles with the allegation that China killed 158 Indian soldiers in a rocket attack on Sikkim. The review examined that specific image and claim in the context of recent India–China border tensions. It reported finding no news reports of such a death toll or attack in Sikkim during those tensions, and no recent incident matching the allegation. [S1]

Fact CrescendoWar & conflict

Claim: This is not Indian Army training session

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates a social-media video showing military vehicles laying a temporary bridge across a river. The post presented it as a military vehicle made under the Indian government’s Make in India programme, but the review notes that the footage itself showed no identifying mark establishing that the equipment belonged to India. The reviewer also says that, at about 2 minutes 10 seconds, soldiers visible in the video did not appear to be Indian. To identify the footage, the review describes searching for videos of military floating bridges and comparing the clip with results about Polish military exercises. It reports finding the same video, but says those initial results did not establish its origin. The reviewer then found a video uploaded by the military-focused YouTube channel AiirSource Military, which identified the scene as a Polish military unit building a floating bridge during a NATO exercise. The review gives the upload date as June 20, 2017. On that basis, the review concludes that the clip shows Polish forces in training, not an Indian military bridge-building session or equipment made under Make in India. Its conclusion is specific to the video and the attribution in the post; the excerpt does not claim that India lacks comparable military equipment.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Recent video of Indian Army stopping the Chinese soldiers from entering the Indian territory

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as recent footage of Indian Army personnel stopping Chinese soldiers from entering Indian territory, amid India–China border tensions. FACTLY’s investigation says it checked the video’s online history using screenshots and Google Reverse Image Search. It found that the same video had appeared online by at least 2015, so the footage did not document the recent border standoff described in the post. The investigation identified earlier appearances of the same video: India Today uploaded it to YouTube in July 2017, while NDTV had included it in an article from 2015. The NDTV description said the footage showed a tense standoff that the Army said had taken place more than two years earlier. These earlier appearances support the conclusion that the video was not recent, though the excerpts do not establish the exact date or circumstances of the footage. FACTLY expressly qualified its finding: it could not independently verify the video’s context or exact time. Its conclusion is narrower—that this video was not related to the recent India–China border events—not a definitive account of when or where the original confrontation occurred.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Videos related to the recent India-China border stand-off

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned videos shared as footage of the recent India-China border stand-off. FACTLY’s review concluded that the videos were old and did not show the recent incidents along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Its account addresses three videos separately, distinguishing their earlier provenance from the May 2020 events. For the first video, FACTLY says it had already debunked the same footage when it circulated in 2019. That earlier investigation identified it as footage of a clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers near Pangong Lake in Ladakh on 15 August 2017. For the second, the review reports using Yandex reverse-image search on screenshots. Search results led it to a user upload dated 13 January 2020, titled “Chinese army arguing with Indo Tibetan Border Police (I.T.B.P.) in Border of Arunachal Pradesh”; FACTLY therefore says it was not footage of the recent May 2020 incidents. For the third video, FACTLY says it had circulated online at least since 2017 and points to the same video posted by Deccan Herald on YouTube in July 2017, titled “Watch: Jawans stop Chinese soldiers from entering Indian territory Part 1.” Taken together, those earlier dates and sources support the review’s conclusion that the three videos were old material recirculated in the context of the stand-off, rather than footage of the recent incidents.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturWar & conflict

Eine Bildkombination aus drei Fotos zeigt vermeintlich den früheren Al-Kaida-Chef Osama bin Laden mit prominenten US-Politikern. Die Bilder erwecken den Anschein, als hätten sich jeweils Ex-US-Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice, die frühere US-Außenministerin Hillary Clinton und der ehemalige US-Präsident Barack Obama mit dem Terroristen fotografieren lassen. Bin Laden wurde 2011 getötet

Publisher’s rating: Die Aufnahmen sind manipuliert und wurden zum Teil im Rahmen von Bildbearbeitungs-Wettbewerben angefertigt.