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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCulture & entertainment

In sozialen Medien kursiert ein angebliches Zitat des deutschen Dichters Theodor Körner. Dem 1791 geborenen Schriftsteller wird die folgende Aussage zugeschrieben: «Noch sitzt ihr da oben, ihr feigen Gestalten. Vom Feinde bezahlt, dem Volke zum Spott. Doch einst wird wieder Gerechtigkeit walten, dann richtet das Volk. Dann gnade Euch Gott!»

Publisher’s rating: Es handelt sich um die leicht abgewandelte vierte Strophe eines Gedichtes einer rechtsextremen deutschen Schriftstellerin. Für eine Urheberschaft Theodor Körners gibt es keinen Beleg.

The claim concerns lines circulating online as a quotation by Theodor Körner, the German poet born in 1791. The investigation checked whether the wording could be found in Körner’s literary works and consulted literature scholar Erhard Jöst, a Körner expert. A search of Körner’s works available through zeno.org returned no match; Jöst told the agency that Körner had never written the lines and that they appear in none of his poems, dramas or prose. The investigation also found that the language imitates Körner’s patriotic style, rather than establishing his authorship. [S1] The article traces a different source for the passage. It reports that the last four lines of Renate Schütte’s poem “Anklage,” in her 1984 collected poetry, closely match the circulating wording. The poem’s version begins “Heut sitzt ihr noch oben” and includes “vom Feinde gestützt,” whereas the online quotation begins “Noch sitzt ihr da oben” and says “Vom Feinde bezahlt.” Thus the circulated text is a slightly altered version, not an exact transcription. [S1] The article also reports that the lines were already being recited at a Holocaust-denial event at Munich’s Löwenbräukeller in 1990, as shown in a documentary available on YouTube. The man who recited them later told the agency they came from Schütte, not Körner. The evidence therefore links the wording to Schütte’s poem and documents its earlier circulation, while the search and expert testimony weigh against the claimed Körner attribution. [S1]

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Screenshots of tweets made by actor Sushanth Singh Rajput before his suicide on 14 June 2020

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined screenshots circulated as Sushanth Singh Rajput’s last tweets before his death, including the accompanying assertion that he had later deleted them. Its review compared details visible in the screenshots with the format of a standard tweet and identified several inconsistencies. It reported that the alignment of text and profile pictures varied between the images, unlike the format of a normal tweet. It also noted that the timestamp used lowercase “am” and “jun,” whereas the review says the standard format uses “AM” and “Jun.” The review further observed that the tweets were not presented as a thread but displayed the same time, 5:43. Based on these format discrepancies, FACTLY concluded that the screenshots were digitally created rather than tweets made by Rajput. The supplied excerpt describes a visual-format comparison; it does not provide separate account records or other independent provenance evidence.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Video of people dancing to the Lungi Dance song at a quarantine centre in Mumbai

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video of people dancing to “Lungi Dance” that was being presented as footage from the NSCI Worli Badminton Court quarantine centre in Mumbai. FACTLY also noted that the same video had been circulated with claims placing it at quarantine facilities in Chennai and Hyderabad. Its conclusion was that the Mumbai attribution was wrong: it identified the filming location as the COVID-19 quarantine centre at Hapania Exhibition Centre in Agartala, Tripura. [S1: “A video of people dancing to the popular Lungi Dance song is being shared on social media with a claim that it is captured at the NSCI Worli Badminton Court Quarantine Centre in Mumbai.”; “It is captured at the quarantine centre for COVID-19 patients at Hapania Exhibition Centre in Agartala, Tripura.”] The review describes tracing the video’s online circulation and checking the Mumbai attribution. It says the post’s description attributed the video to a tweet by BJP MLA Nitesh Rane; replies to that tweet included a BMC response saying the video was not from NSCI or another Mumbai quarantine facility. FACTLY also reports that replies cited an India.com article identifying Tripura as the location, and that BMC shared the same article. [S1: “The description of the video posted on Facebook mentions that the video was tweeted by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Nitesh Rane.”; “BMC), which mentions that the video is not from NSCI or any other quarantine facility in Mumbai.”; “BMC has also responded to his tweet with the same article.”] For the Tripura identification, FACTLY points to another upload of the dance by the YouTube channel Inside Northeast, which it says identified the footage as being from the Hapania COVID-19 facility. It also cites reporting by NDTV and Zee News. The review further compares the setting in the video with photographs of the Hapania facility shared by Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb. These lines of evidence support the location correction; the excerpt does not provide a detailed technical analysis of the video or independently describe how the footage was geolocated. [S1: “Another video of this dance was uploaded on the YouTube channel of Inside Northeast which mentions that this video is from the Hapania COVID-19 facility in Tripura.”; “The same has been reported by ‘NDTV‘ and ‘Zee News‘.”; “One can notice the similarities between these pictures and the facility where the Lungi Dance video is shot.”]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCulture & entertainment

Die Fernsehserie «Simpsons» hat sich durch einige bemerkenswerte Vorhersehungen der Zukunft wie etwa der Präsidentschaft Donald Trumps längst den Ruf eines Orakels gesichert. Nun soll sie auch den Tod George Floyds und die anschließenden Proteste gegen Rassismus und Polizeigewalt prophezeit haben, behaupten einige User. Bei Facebook kursieren angebliche Screenshots der Serie, die den Tod Floyds sowie die aktuellen Unruhen in den USA darstellen sollen.

Publisher’s rating: Die Polizeigewalt gegen George Floyd wurde nicht von den «Simpsons» vorausgesagt. Das Bild, das dies beweisen soll, wurde nach dem Tod von Floyd von einem Künstler veröffentlicht. Das andere Bild in «Simpsons»-Optik, das ein brennendes Polizeigebäude zeigt, stammt aus der TV-Serie. Allerdings ist ein in Folge der Proteste brennendes Gebäude, mit dem dieser «Simpsons»-Ausschnitt verglichen wird, laut Medienberichten kein Polizeigebäude.

The claim concerns two images circulating on Facebook that were presented as evidence The Simpsons had predicted George Floyd’s death and the protests against racism and police violence. The review distinguishes the images’ origins: the depiction of Floyd being pressed to the ground by police chief Clancy Wiggum was not taken from the television series. The review says artist Yuri Pomo posted it on Instagram and Facebook on May 30, 2020, and that his name is visible on the original. The other image, showing a burning Springfield police station, does come from the series. The review identifies it as a scene from “Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder,” season 11, episode 6, in which Homer points out the burning station after being stopped by Wiggum. But the real burning building used for comparison was not a police station: the review reports that media identified it as a new development of affordable rental apartments. Thus the viral comparison combined a post-event artwork with a genuine Simpsons scene, while misidentifying the real building in the latter comparison.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

No, Hollywood Star Vin Diesel Has Not Died While Performing A Stunt

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned viral posts saying that actor Vin Diesel had died after a failed stunt, including a version describing a backyard stunt in May 2020. The review traced the posts to a website video whose headline alleged his death and whose apparent news footage was presented as a CNN report. The investigators noted that the video frame instead displayed an ABC News logo, and that the site prompted viewers to share the link on Facebook to continue watching. To check the claim, the review says investigators examined the linked pages and their source information, checked Diesel’s Instagram account, and searched YouTube for ABC News coverage of Paul Walker’s death. They found that the link redirected to a YouTube video and identified the footage as an original report about Walker’s 2013 death that had been manipulated to suggest Diesel had died. The review also reports that Diesel had recently posted on Instagram. The review concluded that the death story was false: the viral video repurposed reporting about Walker, rather than documenting a fatal stunt involving Diesel. Its account of changing publication times, redirects, advertisements, and a share-to-watch prompt also describes how the viral pages obscured the video’s provenance and encouraged further sharing.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Image of sword used by Indian ruler Maharana Pratap

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned an image of a sword and scabbard being shared on Facebook as an object used by the Indian ruler Maharana Pratap. FACTLY’s investigation identified the pictured weapon as belonging to Boabdil, also known as Muhammad XII, the last Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada—not Maharana Pratap. The article says it reached this identification by tracing the same image through a reverse image search to an article on “Islamic History,” which described the sword and scabbard as Boabdil’s. It also reports finding the same attribution on Sword-site, a website listing historically relevant swords. These are the article’s stated image-provenance and corroboration checks. (S1: “An image of sword and scabbard is being shared widely on Facebook claiming it to be of Indian ruler Maharana Pratap.”; “On reverse image search, the same image was found in a WordPress article of ‘Islamic History’. The image in the article had the description that the sword and scabbard belonged to Boabdil (also known as Muhammad XII), the last Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada. The same information about the sword can also be found on ‘Sword-site’, a website that lists historically relevant swords.”) The review also compared the pictured weapon with swords identified as Maharana Pratap’s and displayed at the Maharana Pratap Museum in Udaipur, Rajasthan. It cites an Economic Times article for the account that Pratap carried two swords weighing nearly 25 kilos each and that his swords are now displayed at the museum. FACTLY says the museum swords were bent at the edges, unlike the straight sword in the circulating image. This comparison supports the review’s conclusion, while the reverse-search attribution is the evidence it gives for identifying the pictured sword specifically as Boabdil’s. (S1: “In an article published by ‘The Economic Times’, it is mentioned that ‘the Rajput king Maharana Pratap used to carry two swords which weighed nearly 25 kilos each. It is said that he would offer one sword to his enemy before a fight if he was unarmed. Currently, the swords are placed in the Maharana Pratap museum in Udaipur, Rajasthan’.”; “Upon looking at the swords of Maharana Pratap kept for display at the Maharana Pratap Museum in Udaipur, the swords used by him were bent at the edges, unlike the sword in the image that is straight.”)

Fact CrescendoCulture & entertainment

Claim: Bhagat Singh youngest sister passes away

Publisher’s rating: Partly False

The review investigated a social-media post claiming that Prakash Kaur, identified as Bhagat Singh’s sister, died on May 30, 2020, and that news channels had not reported her death. It describes the post as including an image with text making those assertions, and says that Murali Krishnan shared it on Facebook on June 1, 2020. The review’s question was whether Kaur had died on the claimed date and whether the death had gone unreported. The fact-check says it searched Google for reports about Kaur’s death. It found that major outlets, including The Hindu, India Today and Hindustan Times, had published reports in 2014, and that Tamil-language reports, including one by Dinakaran, had also appeared that year. The review quotes a Dinakaran report identifying Kaur as Bhagat Singh’s younger sister, aged 96, living in Toronto, Canada. That account says she died on September 28, the date of Bhagat Singh’s birthday, and reports that her son, Rupinder Singh, and a relative, Harbhajan Singh Dutt, confirmed her death. This chronology contradicts the post’s claim that Kaur died on May 30, 2020, and undermines its assertion that her death had been kept out of the news: the review points to reporting from 2014. Its conclusion rests on the earlier reported death, rather than on evidence of a new death in 2020.