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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Culture & entertainment fact checks

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

3,169 published reviews in this topic

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

FACT CHECK: නර්ථන ශිල්පී කෙවින් නුගාර පසුගියදා Covid උපන්දින සාදයකට ගියාද?

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a video presented on Facebook as showing dancer Kevin Nugara at a birthday party during COVID travel restrictions. The post’s caption called it a “Birthday covid party,” implying that Nugara had attended a recent gathering. The investigation says the post could be understood in the context of the birthday party for Chandimal Jayasinghe held at Colombo’s Shangri-La hotel, but it checked whether the video actually showed Nugara at that event or another gathering during the restrictions. (S1) Nugara told the investigators that he had not attended any event during the restriction period and specifically denied attending Jayasinghe’s birthday. He identified the footage as showing a dinner dance after a dance competition on 7 September 2019, at the Golden Rose hotel in Boralesgamuwa. The review also reports that the competition was the 2nd Dancesport Championship 2019, held at that venue, where Nugara had served as a judge. (S1) The investigation corroborated that account by asking the hotel manager about the video’s background and contacting the competition’s two organizers. The manager identified the setting as the hotel’s event hall and said the hotel was closed and holding no events during the restriction period. The organizers identified the footage as from the gathering after the 2019 competition. Taken together, the reported account, venue checks and organizers’ identification place the video at an earlier dance event, rather than establishing that Nugara attended the COVID-period birthday party. (S1)

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Egypt’s Pyramids are lit up with colours of Palestine flag

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an image shared during the recent Israel–Palestine tensions, said to show Egypt’s Pyramids lit in Palestinian-flag colours as an act of solidarity. The review identifies the location as the Giza Pyramids and says the post circulated in the context of Egypt mediating a ceasefire. Its finding is that the pyramids were not lit in those colours; the image was digitally edited. (S1: “a social media post accompanying an image of the Egypt Pyramid is being widely shared with a claim that the Pyramids are lit up with colours of the Palestinian flag as an act of solidarity.”; “The Giza Pyramids were not lit up with Palestinian flag colours.”; “This image is actually a digitally edited version of an image of Giza Pyramid”) The review describes two checks: it looked for reports or other information of such a lighting, and it conducted a reverse image search. It reports finding a similar image of the pyramids without the flag on Wikimedia Commons, then comparing that image with the circulated post image and observing striking similarities. The review says it found no reports or other information that the pyramids had been illuminated with the flag colours. (S1: “Firstly, there are no media reports or any other information stating that Egyptian Pyramids were lighted with the Palestine flag.”; “Further reverse image search of the photo in the post led us to the same image of Egyptian Pyramids, but without the Palestine flag on Wikimedia commons that has a close resemblance to the image in the post.”; “By juxtaposing this image with one in the post, we can spot many striking similarities between these two images.”) The review gives the comparison image’s provenance as a Wikimedia photograph credited to Ayah Ahmed and dated 18 August 2014; it says the image’s EXIF information also gives that date. It notes that the same image appears on the official Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities website, and presents these as possible sources for the image that was edited. This documented earlier image supports the review’s conclusion that the circulated flag-coloured version was manipulated, rather than evidence of a recent lighting event. (S1: “According to Wikimedia, this image is clicked on 18 August 2014 and the image is credited to Ayah Ahmed.”; “Even the EXIF info related to this image says that the image was clicked on 18 August 2014”; “Further, the same image is also featured on Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities official website.”; “either of these sources of this particular image of the Giza Pyramids could be the source image used to digitally edit so as to look like it is lit up with colours of the Palestinian flag.”)

dpaCulture & entertainment

Zo ziet Liv Tyler er vandaag uit.

Publisher’s rating: Hoewel de YouTube-video de juiste vroeger-nu foto's toont van de personages uit The Lord of the Rings, doet de thumbnail van het RelaxD-artikel dat niet. Het gaat om een bewerkte foto. De titel van het artikel insinueert nochtans dat het om een hedendaagse foto van Tyler gaat. De post is daarom onjuist.

The claim presents an image in the thumbnail of a RelaxD article as showing Liv Tyler today. The review distinguishes that thumbnail from the article’s YouTube video: it says the video contains the correct then-and-now images, but the thumbnail does not. The review also notes that the article title suggests the thumbnail is a current image of Tyler. To check the image, the review describes comparing it with a Getty Images photograph of Tyler at the FOX Winter TCA All Star Party in Pasadena, California, on January 7, 2020, and with images found through Google and Tyler’s Instagram. It reports that the thumbnail instead shows another woman with Tyler’s face apparently pasted onto it. Thus, the misleading element is the edited thumbnail, not the then-and-now imagery in the video.