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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

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

6,836 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCrime & justice

Digital signboards that display the photo of traffic violators are to be installed soon in Chennai

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns whether Chennai would soon install digital signboards at traffic signals displaying photographs of people who violated traffic rules. The review examines a circulating video that appears to show such a board and a person’s photo, and notes that the video was being shared as evidence that the system would be implemented soon. The review reports that neither Chennai traffic police nor the Greater Chennai Corporation had officially announced such an installation: “Chennai traffic police or the Greater Chennai Corporation has not officially released any statement on installing such systems in the city.” To check whether the proposal had been reported, the review says it searched for credible media coverage of a decision by the Greater Chennai Corporation. It found no reports stating that the signboards would be installed soon. It also used reverse image search on keyframes from the viral video, which led to an Instagram post containing the same footage. The review describes the board shown in the clip as CGI rather than an actual Chennai installation. The review’s account of the video’s provenance further weakens its use as proof of a real deployment. It says the creator, @riggedindian, uploaded the video on 08 June 2023 and described it as a concept video. Thus, the footage depicts a proposed or imagined system, while the review found no official announcement or credible reporting supporting the claim that Chennai was about to install it.