PeakMetrics / Fact Checks
Crime & justice fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
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Search by text or image6,854 published reviews in this topic
Maria do Rosário comemora por ter sido assaltada: “Chupa, propriedade privada”
Publisher’s rating: Falso
MULHER FILMADA TORTURANDO CRIANÇA É ASSASSINADA A FACADAS E TEM CABEÇA DECEPADA NA CADEIA
Publisher’s rating: Falso
కేరళలో హిందూ అమ్మాయిలను ISIS అమ్మకంకి పెట్టింది. అమ్మాయి యొక్క కులం బట్టి రేటు ఫిక్స్ చేసారు.
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
Claim: Woman police officer who shot a rapist
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The post paired a photograph of a woman in uniform with a claim that she was a police officer who shot and killed a man attempting to rape a schoolgirl. Fact Crescendo says it investigated the post after it spread on Facebook, where users were sharing it as true. Its account identifies the photo’s subject as Priya Ravichandran, not a police officer who shot a suspect: she served in Tamil Nadu’s fire service and was promoted to joint director. The review says she had joined the fire service as Tamil Nadu’s first woman divisional officer. [S1: “இதில், காக்கி சீருடை அணிந்த பெண் அதிகாரி ஒருவரின் புகைப்படத்தை பகிர்ந்து” and “மேற்கண்ட புகைப்படத்தில் இருப்பவர் பிரியா ரவிச்சந்திரன் ஆவார். தமிழகத்தின் முதல் பெண் டிவிஷனல் ஆஃபிசராக தீயணைப்புத் துறையில் பணிக்குச் சேர்ந்த இவர் தற்போது தமிழக தீயணைப்புத் துறையின் இணை இயக்குனராக பதவி உயர்வு பெற்று”] The review describes its identification method as uploading the photograph to Google to search for information about the person shown. It also notes that Ravichandran received awards from central and state governments for acts of bravery during a fire at the Ezhilagam building complex in Chennai in 2012. That detail supplies relevant context for her public profile, but the review does not say that the fire-service incident involved the alleged rape attempt or a shooting. It concludes that the post falsely described a fire-service officer as a police officer who shot a man accused of attempting a sexual crime. [S1: “மேற்குறிப்பிட்ட புகைப்படத்தில் இருப்பவர் யார் என்று அறிந்துகொள்ளும் வகையில் இதனை கூகுள் இணையதளத்தில் பதிவேற்றி தகவல் தேடினோம்.” and “சென்னை எழிலகம் கட்டிட வளாகத்தில் 2012ம் ஆண்டு நிகழ்ந்த தீ விபத்து ஒன்றில் வீர தீர செயல்கள் புரிந்தமைக்காக இவர் மத்திய, மாநில அரசுகளிடம் இருந்து பல விருதுகளை பெற்றிருக்கிறார்.” and “தமிழக தீயணைப்புத் துறையில் பணிபுரியும் பெண் அதிகாரியின் புகைப்படத்தை பகிர்ந்து, அவரை போலீஸ் அதிகாரி என்றும், பாலியல் குற்றம் புரிய முயன்ற நபரை துப்பாக்கியால் சுட்டவர் என்றும் தவறான தகவல் பரப்பியுள்ளனர்”]
Den tödlichen Messerangriff auf einen Chefarzt in Berlin haben Menschen im Internet für fremdenfeindliche Hetze genutzt. Nach der Tat vergingen einige Stunden, in denen die Polizei keine genauen Angaben zum Verdächtigen machte. Während dieser Zeit wurde in sozialen Medien etwa fälschlicherweise spekuliert, dass es sich bei dem mutmaßlichen Täter um einen Migrant handele oder dass die Tat in einem Zusammenhang mit der deutschen Flüchtlingspolitik stehe.
Publisher’s rating: Die Polizei gibt an, dass der Festgenommene ein 57-jähriger Deutscher ist.
דניאלה בייניש, בתה של דורית בייניש, שקיבלה תקן בפרקליטות מיד עם סיום ההתמחות ומונתה לשופטת בימ"ש המחוזי בזמן שאמא שלה היתה בועד למינוי שופטים
Publisher’s rating: לא נכון בחלקו
“The president had to confess in writing, in court, to illegally diverting charitable contributions that were supposed to go to veterans.”
Publisher’s rating: This is misleading.
Nach dem tödlichen Messerangriff auf einen Chefarzt in Berlin wird im Internet verbreitet, in den Nachrichten werde nicht die Wahrheit über den Fall berichtet. Als Beweis wird der unbelegte Kommentar einer vermeintlichen Augenzeugin «aus der Notaufnahme» herangezogen. Darin heißt es unter anderem fälschlicherweise, die Attacke habe sich «am Aussentor der Klinik» abgespielt. Zudem verschwiegen die Medien angeblich weitere Schwerverletzte (http://dpaq.de/zuvF9).
Publisher’s rating: Der Augenzeugenbericht ist erfunden. Die Tat ereignete sich in einem Seminarraum im Inneren der Klinik. Nach Polizeiangaben gab es einen Toten und einen Schwerverletzten.
The dpa fact-check examined a social-media account attributed to a supposed witness from the emergency department. The account alleged that the attack happened outside the clinic and that three additional people were seriously injured. The review says the post circulated as a Facebook screenshot and notes that it offered no evidence for those claims. The account’s description of the location conflicts with the investigation details reported by dpa. The fatal stabbing took place on the evening of 19 November 2019 in a seminar room inside Berlin’s Schlosspark-Klinik, where chief physician Fritz von Weizsäcker was giving a talk. Police and the Berlin public prosecutor’s office said an assailant came from the audience toward the podium and attacked him. A 33-year-old off-duty police officer who intervened was critically injured. The review’s account of the police information identifies one person killed and one injured, not three additional seriously injured people. It also reports that the suspect was arrested at the scene. These reported details address the post’s specific assertions about where the attack occurred and the number of other victims; the supplied excerpt does not describe a separate forensic examination of the screenshot or identify its author.
Eine Webseite behauptet, die Staatsanwaltschaft Berlin ermittele gegen den österreichischen Ex-Bundeskanzler Sebastian Kurz. Die Vorwürfe lauteten auf «Mord, sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und andere Delikte», heißt es dort. Sogar ein angebliches Aktenzeichen wird mitgeliefert: «8 St 221 / 19 b».
Publisher’s rating: Die Berliner Staatsanwaltschaft ermittelt nicht gegen Sebastian Kurz. Das angegebene Aktenzeichen existiert außerdem in Berlin nicht.
The claim alleged that Berlin prosecutors were investigating former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz for serious crimes and cited “8 St 221 / 19 b” as the case number. The review reports that the German Press Agency asked the Berlin Public Prosecutor General’s Office about both Kurz and the number. A spokesperson said that no investigation involving Kurz could be identified among Berlin law-enforcement authorities and that the supplied file number was not known to the office; the spokesperson also said that Berlin does not use numbers of that form. Thus, the review’s evidence directly addresses the two central details in the allegation: whether Berlin authorities had an investigation against Kurz, and whether the cited number was a Berlin case number. It reports the authorities’ response as contradicting both details. The excerpt provides no evidence that the allegations themselves were investigated elsewhere.
"The whistleblower has the statutory right to anonymity."
Publisher’s rating: Law doesn't say that
Police brutality on students during the recent JNU fee hike protests.
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerns an image presented as showing police brutality against students during the recent JNU fee-hike protests. FACTLY reports that JNU students had been protesting the draft hostel manual and proposed hostel-fee hike, but concludes that the image does not depict those protests. Instead, it shows a policeman beating a demonstrator at a protest in New Delhi in December 2012. To investigate, the article says it used Google reverse image search. It reports finding the same image in a Hindustan Times article about protests against the gang-rape of a woman in New Delhi in December 2012. That match places the image in a different event, nearly seven years before the JNU protests described in the review. The article also reports finding the image in Reuters’ photo stock. Its caption identifies a policeman wielding a baton against a demonstrator near the presidential palace in New Delhi on December 22, 2012, during protests against the gang-rape. This provenance supports the review’s conclusion that the image was misattributed to the JNU fee-hike protests; the excerpt does not claim that police brutality did not occur during other protests, only that this particular image is unrelated.
Claim: Youth attacked police officer in Tirunelveli
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The post claimed that a youth in Tirunelveli attacked a police officer who had asked for a bribe. The review says the post included photographs of a young man attacking a sub-inspector and a caption describing the officer as having demanded a bribe. Its investigation found that the images showed a different incident, in Kanpur, rather than an attack in Tirunelveli. To check the photographs, the reviewers used a reverse-image search and found reporting about a 2017 incident. According to the account in the review, a 16–17-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted by a hospital ward attendant after she was admitted to hospital. Members of the public then protested at the hospital; a clash followed between police and the crowd, and some people attacked a sub-inspector who had become separated from the others. The review thus identifies a different setting and cause for the photographed violence than the social-media caption claimed. The review also says it searched YouTube for video of the incident and found an India TV report. It states that the report was posted on June 19, 2017, identified the event as occurring in Kanpur, and showed the same scene seen in the photographs. Together, the image-search findings and the matching scene in the video support the review’s conclusion that the photographs were misrepresented as showing a bribe-related attack in Tirunelveli.
Robredo: “We should decriminalize drugs”
Publisher’s rating: False: The claim parroted an erroneous headline
Ein Streit in einem Supermarkt in Hildburghausen ist Mitte November eskaliert. Im Internet wird behauptet, ein Deutscher sei dabei von etwa zehn Ausländern zusammengeschlagen worden.
Publisher’s rating: Die Polizei geht nicht von solch einer brutalen Attacke aus. Richtig ist, dass es eine Auseinandersetzung gab. Dabei kam es nach Polizeiangaben zu «einem Schlag ins Gesicht». Zuvor hat es demnach einen Streit gegeben, bei dem sich das mutmaßliche Opfer anscheinend ausländerfeindlich äußerte.
The claim concerned a reported altercation in a supermarket in Hildburghausen, Thuringia, on November 15, 2019. A blog post by Tommy Frenck alleged that about ten foreign men had beaten a German man. The dpa account reports that the police had a different account of the incident after questioning several witnesses: they assessed that there had been one blow to the face, not the large-scale beating described online. The source says police were investigating the incident as simple bodily injury and had not yet identified the suspected assailant. [S1: “Im thüringischen Hildburghausen ist es am Abend des 15. November 2019 zu einem Streit zwischen einem Deutschen und einem Ausländer gekommen.”; “Auf seinem Blog schreibt am 17. November Tommy Frenck - eine zentrale Figur der rechtsextremistischen Szene in Thüringen -, dass der Mann von etwa zehn Ausländern zusammengeschlagen worden sei”; “geht die Behörde nach der Befragung mehrerer Zeugen von «einem Schlag ins Gesicht» aus”; “Die Polizei ermittelt wegen einfacher Körperverletzung.”] The account also distinguishes the German man’s initial report from what police said they concluded. He reported being struck by several men of foreign origin when he went to the police station the day after the incident; police later said their witness inquiries supported a single blow. The source reports that police said there had first been an argument and that the German man had apparently made xenophobic remarks. It does not establish who struck him: the suspected perpetrator was described as a man of foreign origin who was not yet known to police. [S1: “habe sich am Tag nach dem Vorfall das Opfer in der Dienststelle gemeldet”; “Der 39-jährige Deutsche hat demnach angegeben, von mehreren Männern ausländischer Herkunft in einem Supermarkt geschlagen worden zu sein.”; “Zuvor soll sich das Opfer während des Streits ausländerfeindlich geäußert haben.”; “Derzeit wird aber noch ermittelt, wer der mutmaßliche Täter ist.”]
Vídeo de un tiroteo en Marbella
Publisher’s rating: Falso
The claim concerned a video circulating on social media and WhatsApp as footage of a shooting in Marbella. Newtral distinguishes the occurrence of a real shooting there from the identity of the video being shared: the review says that the video attached to the forwarded message did not show those events, but was recorded in Tripoli, Lebanon, in the Abu Samra area. It attributes the video’s publication to Lebanon24 and says it was uploaded to YouTube on November 11. [S1]
a women beating a girl child in pakistan
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The review examined a viral video showing a woman beating a girl and focused on the claim that the incident took place in Pakistan. It reports that Tarek Fatah described the woman as a Pakistani mother and said the beating reflected a practice among Punjabi families. Another post placed the incident in Maraghzar Colony, Lahore, and described the woman as the girl’s stepmother. The review’s conclusion was that the video was not from Pakistan.
துறையூர் அருகே நாம் தமிழர் கட்சியினர் இயக்கி வந்த போலி மதுபான ஆலையை கண்டுபிடித்த போலீசார்.
Publisher’s rating: Fake