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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

dpaCrime & justice

Ein 5-Jähriges Mädchen namens "Julie" wird in Deutschland vermisst und von der Polizei gesucht.

Publisher’s rating: Vorsicht, die Entführung ist erfunden. Die Polizei warnt in mehreren Bundesländern vor der Falschnachricht und damit verbundenem Datendiebstahl. Der Link führt zu einer unseriösen Webseite. Im Netz kursieren mehrere Beiträge mit unterschiedlichen Ortsangaben und Bildern.

The posts described a supposed abduction of a five-year-old girl called Julie. One version claimed she had been taken in Berlin and showed a man carrying a girl in a pink jacket; the posts urged people to share the appeal. The review found that the case was fabricated, and that versions of the posts varied in their stated locations and preview images. Police statements cited in the review said that no such abduction had occurred and that the purported missing girl did not exist. [S1: “Bei Facebook kursieren mehrere Beiträge, in denen es um eine angebliche Entführung der fünfjährigen «Julie» geht. Die Angaben zum Tatort variieren, zum Teil ist das Vorschaubild ein anderes. Doch der Fall ist erfunden, wie ein dpa-Faktencheck zeigt.”] The review also describes how the posts could lead to credential theft rather than to information about a real missing child. The link opened a page designed to resemble Facebook and displayed a fabricated post attributed to Der Spiegel. To view the supposed post in full, users were prompted to enter Facebook login details under the pretext of confirming their age. Police in Viersen warned that this could give criminals access to a user’s account and potentially other information linked to it. [S1: “Der Link aus dem Facebook-Post leitet auf eine Webseite weiter, die einer Facebook-Seite zwar stark ähnelt.”] [S1: “Um den gefälschten Post vollständig sehen zu können, sollen Nutzer ihre Facebook-Zugangsdaten eingeben - angeblich zur Bestätigung des Alters.”] The image presented as evidence of the abduction was also misleading: the review traced it to a scene in a YouTube short film about child abduction, published in 2019. The review says the scene appears at minute 2:34, so the image did not document a current abduction in 2023. [S1: “Das Bild aus der Vorschau zeigt derweil einen Ausschnitt aus einem Kurzfilm bei Youtube.”] [S1: “Der Film wurde bereits im Jahr 2019 veröffentlicht. Das verwendete Vorschaubild kann also keine aktuelle Entführung aus dem Jahr 2023 zeigen.”]

FACTLYCrime & justice

Journalist Deepak Chaurasia was recently arrested on the charges of raping a 9-year-old girl

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a social-media post saying journalist Deepak Chaurasia had been arrested on charges of raping a 9-year-old girl. The review found that the arrest warrant involved a different allegation: his role in broadcasting videos of a 10-year-old girl and her family in connection with a sexual-assault case. It states that the Gurugram POCSO court issued a warrant in a 2013 case “for allegedly airing morphed and tampered videos of a 10-year-old girl and her family and linking the same to a sexual assault.” To check the post, the review says it searched for information about the alleged arrest and found a Live Law report about a warrant against Chaurasia. It also describes the underlying FIR: the petitioner accused journalists, including Chaurasia, of airing a tampered and distorted video of his 10-year-old niece and portraying her and her family in a misleading way. The review says the petitioner did not accuse Chaurasia of raping the girl. The distinction is between an accusation of rape and an allegation concerning the broadcast of doctored or tampered video. The review says the warrant was for 03 March 2023 and explicitly states that it “was not issued on the charges of raping a minor girl.” It also reports that Chaurasia had not been arrested, so the post’s assertion of an arrest for rape did not match the evidence described.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Die 5-jährige Julie ist seit vier Tagen verschwunden.

Publisher’s rating: Der Fall ist erfunden und kursiert im Netz mit unterschiedlichen Ortsangaben. Die Polizei warnt in mehreren Bundesländern vor der Falschnachricht und damit verbundenem Datendiebstahl. Der Link führt zu einer unseriösen Webseite.

dpaCrime & justice

Deze video toont een gewelddadig incident in Brussel-Noord.

Publisher’s rating: Het incident vond plaats in Ierland, in een randgemeente van Dublin, in april 2021. Het heeft geen enkele link met België. Het slachtoffer kan het verhaal heelhuids navertellen en de dader kreeg een probatiestraf.

The video does show a real incident, but the investigation identifies the location as Howth station, in a suburb of Dublin, rather than Brussels-North. It says the incident happened in April 2021: a teenage boy pushed a 17-year-old girl from the platform onto the tracks, where she fell beneath a stationary train. The review therefore addresses the same footage and the specific claim about its location and timing. [S1]