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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.

6,849 published reviews in this topic

dpaCrime & justice

Le PDG de Disney, Bob Chapek, a été arrêté pour trafic d'êtres humains.

Publisher’s rating: Cette rumeur provient d’un site satirique. Quatre employés de Disney ont bien été arrêtés dans le cadre d'une enquête liée au trafic d’êtres humains, selon la police, mais le PDG de l’entreprise n'est pas concerné par cette affaire.

The claim circulating on Facebook was that Bob Chapek, then Disney’s CEO, had been arrested at home for human trafficking. The review traces the posts to screenshots of tweets published on March 17, 2022, which cited an article from the Vancouver Times. The review says that article was satire, rather than reporting evidence that Chapek had been arrested. The rumor appears to have drawn on a real but different event. On March 16, 2022, U.S. authorities announced 108 arrests in an operation related to human trafficking. Police told CBS News that four of those arrested were Disney employees. The review describes the allegations against those employees: one was suspected of sending inappropriate photos to a minor, while three allegedly tried to use the services of a sex worker, illegal in Florida. Disney confirmed to CBS News that three of the four were employees at the time of their arrests. These details concern employees, not Chapek. To assess the claim, the review followed the Facebook posts back to the tweets and the cited article, examined the site’s statements about satire and archived versions, and noted that searches found no reporting of Chapek’s arrest by major media outlets. It concludes that the allegation against Chapek had no foundation; the documented arrests do not establish that he was arrested or involved.

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

हा व्हिडिओ शेअर करताना असा दावा केला जात आहे की, जालंधर रेल्वे स्थानकावर एका रिक्षाचालकाने एका दिव्यांग व्यक्तीला बसण्यासाठी प्लॅटफॉर्मवर रिक्षा नेली, तिथे पोलिसांनी त्याच्याकडून दंड मागितला आणि पैसे न दिल्याने पोलिसांनी वृद्धाला अटक केली.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

NewscheckerCrime & justice

CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, has been arrested for human trafficking.

Publisher’s rating: Satire

Related reporting identifies the specific rumor that former Disney CEO Bob Chapek was arrested for human trafficking and describes it as untrue. This supports identifying the claim as a false rumor, but the supplied excerpt does not provide the original fact-check’s evidence or explain how that conclusion was reached.

dpaCrime & justice

De CEO van Disney werd gearresteerd op verdenking van mensensmokkel.

Publisher’s rating: Dit nieuws komt van een website die zichzelf en het verhaal momenteel omschrijft als 'satire'. Of dit altijd de bedoeling was, is niet duidelijk. Wat wel duidelijk is, is dat er geen waarheid in dit verhaal zit.

The claim concerned a Vancouver Times article alleging that Disney CEO Bob Chapek had been arrested for human trafficking, alongside four Disney employees. The review identifies that article as the apparent source of Facebook posts making the claim. It concludes that Chapek was not arrested on those allegations. The review places the story against a real Polk County, Florida, police operation: on March 16, police announced 108 arrests in an undercover human-trafficking operation. Four Disney employees were among those arrested. But the review says the four were a lifeguard, a restaurant worker, a software developer and an IT-department employee—not company leadership. It distinguishes those arrests from the unsupported allegation about Chapek. To assess the viral story, the review examined the Vancouver Times article and its presentation, including a screenshot, the article’s warning and an archived version dated March 17. The archived version did not explicitly label the piece as satire and instead urged readers to share it, while a later version displayed a satire warning. The review also reports that searches found only debunks and coverage of the police operation, with no reliable news outlet reporting Chapek’s arrest. It notes that the satire label’s timing was uncertain, but says that uncertainty does not change the conclusion: the arrest claim was false.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Video of UP Police thrashing a person for saying ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Uttar Pradesh Police beating a person because they said “Pakistan Zindabad.” FACTLY identifies the footage as an older incident in Mathela village, in Chandauli district, where police beat children accused of theft at a mobile shop. The review says the reason for the beating was theft allegations, not the slogan attributed to the person in the circulating claim. FACTLY describes checking screenshots from the video with reverse image search. It found social-media posts with similar visuals dating back to at least May 2021; those posts described the incident as police beating people over theft charges and placed it in Mathela village. The review also says keyword searches located news reports about a similar video, including a Times of India post showing a policeman beating people over mobile-theft allegations. The review reports that Chandauli Police said the video was more than a year old and that both officers involved had been suspended after the incident. It names the officers as outpost in-charge Shivanand Verma and head constable Dilip Kumar. Taken together, the earlier theft-related accounts and the police statement support the conclusion that the footage was recirculated with a false explanation for why the beating occurred.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Visuals showing Karnataka High Court Judge stripping the lawyer, who defended the petitioners of Hijab case

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The viral post presents footage of a Karnataka High Court judge reprimanding a lawyer as showing the judge stripping the lawyer who had defended petitioners in the Hijab case. FACTLY reports that it compared the viral visuals with proceedings on the Karnataka High Court’s official YouTube channel and located footage with matching visuals. The channel’s description dated those proceedings to 3 March 2022; the Hijab judgment came later, on 15 March 2022. The review then checked the court’s judgment using details from the video. That document identified the matter as a commercial appeal, not the Hijab case, and named the reprimanded advocate as G. Sanjay. FACTLY says he was not among the advocates who represented the Hijab-case petitioners. These details establish that the footage concerns a different case and lawyer from the ones asserted in the post. The review also distinguishes the judge’s reprimand from the post’s description of what happened to the advocate: it says the court spared him, taking his young age into consideration, rather than stripping him. Thus, both the video’s case context and the court document contradict the post’s identification of the lawyer and its account of the judge’s action.

Rumor ScannerCrime & justice

ফাঁসির দড়ি গলায় পড়ার পরেও এমন হাঁসি মুখে থাকা পৃথিবীর ইতিহাসে বিরল। এই সেই হামজা বেনদেলাজ, যিনি ২১৭ টি ব্যাংক থেকে ৪০ কোটি ডলার হ্যাক করেন এবং আফ্রিকা ও ফিলিস্তিনে অনাহারে অর্ধাহারে মরে যাওয়ার উপক্রম মানুষদের মাঝে বিলিয়ে দেন।আদালতে তাঁর ফাঁসির রায় হলে অবশেষে হাসি মুখে ফাঁসিতে ঝুলে পড়েন।

Publisher’s rating: False

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

‘සියලු දෙනාම කියවිය යුතු පොලිස් පණිවිඩයේ’ ඇත්ත කතාව!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigates a message circulating on social media and WhatsApp that presents 22 personal-safety recommendations as an official police warning. It says the message linked economic hardship to possible theft and urged people to take precautions, including avoiding conspicuous valuables, being careful with phones and travel, and sharing the advice. The question examined was whether the Police Media Spokesperson’s Office had issued a notice to the media with those 22 points.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Video of a Punjab policeman in a drunken state after Bhagwant Mann became the CM

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY’s original review addresses a social-media claim that a video showed a Punjab policeman in a drunken state after Bhagwant Mann became chief minister. The review says it found the same video on the internet at least as early as 2017, and concludes that it was not filmed after Mann was confirmed as chief minister. That earlier online appearance is the evidence the review gives for rejecting the claimed timing.