Skip to main content

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

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

The old Oxford Dictionary mentioned the meaning of the word Indian as Old-fashioned people, criminals, and stupid people

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media post attributing a disparaging definition of “Indian” to an old Oxford Dictionary, specifically on page 789. The post also asserted that the British changed the meaning of “India” to “Bharat.” FACTLY’s review checked the page-number claim against the 1934 Oxford Dictionary and separately compared the post’s wording with Oxford’s online entry for “Indian.” The review reports that it could not find the word “India” on page 789 of the 1934 edition. It instead found the entry on page 580, where “India” is defined as a country in South Asia. That check does not support the post’s allegation that the cited page gives the claimed insulting definition. The review also notes that Oxford’s online “Indian” entry uses “old-fashioned” and “sometimes offensive” for a different sense: a member of the Indigenous peoples of America, especially North America. It says the entry identifies “Native American” as a synonym. This is not a definition of people of India as criminals or stupid people, and the qualification and referent matter to interpreting the entry. The review further traces “India” to the name of the Indus/Sindhu river and cites historical Greek and Roman usage, rather than a British renaming of the country to Bharat.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Video of a leaked action scene from the Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film Jawan

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a stunt video circulated as a leaked action scene featuring Shah Rukh Khan in Jawan. FACTLY says its investigation identified the footage as a stunt scene from the 2018 Bengali film Bagh Bandi Khela, featuring stunt master Mansoor Ali Khan, rather than a scene from Jawan. The investigation began with reverse image searches of keyframes, which led to social-media posts making the same claim. FACTLY then followed a comment identifying the performer and Bengali film to Mansoor Khan’s Instagram account. There, it found the same video with a description saying he performed the stunt in 2018 in Bangkok for Bagh Bandi Khela. FACTLY also compared the circulating footage with the film’s trailer, released in November 2018, and reported that it showed similar stunt visuals. Taken together, the account’s description and the trailer comparison support the review’s conclusion that the video was misidentified as a Jawan leak.

Projeto ComprovaCulture & entertainment

Faustão furou a fila e passou 50 mil pessoas

Publisher’s rating: É enganoso vídeo em que um homem alega que Faustão “furou a fila” do transplante de coração e passou na frente de 50 mil pessoas por ser rico. O autor do conteúdo também alega que ele próprio segue à espera de um transplante e que não conseguiu por ser pobre. Na realidade, a lista de transplante de coração no Brasil tem 383 pacientes, conforme dados do Ministério da Saúde de 1º de setembro, não 50 mil. Além disso, a priorização leva em conta fatores como gravidade do caso e compatibilidade. Ao Comprova, o homem disse, sem apresentar provas, que aguarda há mais de cinco anos por um coração e, ainda, que está atrás de 18 mil pessoas na “fila”, o que não é possível, uma vez que a lista de espera pelo órgão tem menos de 400 pessoas.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Photo of a railway station that was beautifully decorated with flowers for the Onam festival in Kerala

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a particular image circulated as a photograph of a Kerala railway station decorated for Onam. FACTLY’s review says the image shows a train with floral patterns at a flower-decorated station, but reports that the image is AI-generated rather than a photograph of an actual station in Kerala. It identifies Aneesh Chakkottil, an employee of UAE-based advertising company Copper and Black, as its creator. The review describes several checks connecting the circulating image to that origin. It notes a “Copper & Black” watermark in the image, says a reverse-image search and searches using relevant keywords found the same image on Chakkottil’s Facebook page, and reports that Chakkottil described it as an image of a special Vande Bharat train expected to start service for Onam. According to the review, he also confirmed in comments that the image was AI-generated. A further check reported by FACTLY was a tweet from the Divisional Railway Manager of Thiruvananthapuram Division. The tweet called the image edited, said the claim that it showed a railway station in Kerala was false, and identified the train in the image as being from Kyoto, Japan. The review also says a similar floral-patterned train image appeared on Pngtree, which described it as a train from Kyoto. Together, the reported creator confirmation, image-search findings, and railway official’s statement contradict the claim that the image documents an actual Kerala station decorated for Onam.