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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

Belarusian Investigative CenterCulture & entertainment

Руководитель немецкого телеканала ARD оскорбил зрителей

Publisher’s rating: Главный редактор новостей Стефан Бранденбург в твиттере пояснил, почему репортер телеканала взял комментарий у женщины, которая оказалась сотрудницей ARD. Ошибки случаются, особенно в условиях нехватки времени в актуальном репортаже», — написал Бранденбург.

dpaCulture & entertainment

Cet épisode des Simpson montre une ville détruite par des armes à énergie dirigée (comme ce qu'il s'est passé à Hawaï).

Publisher’s rating: L'épisode dont il est question ne porte pas sur les « armes à énergie dirigée ». L'effondrement de Springfield est en réalité causé par un rayon de soleil se reflétant sur une statue nouvellement érigée.

The claim links two things: the August 2023 Hawaii fires and a Simpsons clip said to show Springfield being destroyed by a directed-energy weapon. The review describes the online posts making that connection and identifies the clip as a scene from “Souvenirs d’enfance,” the first episode of the series’ 28th season, initially shown in the United States in 2016. It reports that the episode does not mention directed-energy weapons. To identify the scene, the review searched for dialogue heard in the Facebook video, including “we will rebuild.” It also notes that the episode’s opening, including the destruction scene, was available on YouTube. The account it gives is that Springfield is damaged when sunlight reflects off a newly erected statue—not by a weapon deliberately firing a laser-like beam. The review places the claim in the context of online theories about the Hawaii fires, which began in early August 2023. It says there was no evidence supporting the theory that the disaster was orchestrated using a directed-energy weapon, and that the fictional Simpsons scene does not substantiate that theory. The excerpt does not establish any connection between the episode and the fires; it identifies a different, fictional cause for the destruction shown in the clip.

dpaCulture & entertainment

Dit is een nieuwe trans Barbie

Publisher’s rating: Deze pop is niet van Mattel, het merk achter de officiële Barbie. Het is een 'Borbie', een parodie die is gemaakt als een lollig cadeautje voor volwassenen.

The review examines a video circulated with the claim that a hairy doll is a new transgender Barbie for young people. It identifies the doll in the video by the packaging visible at the start: the box says “Shave & Play,” and its lettering resembles the original Barbie logo but differs in a key letter. The review then reports searching for “Shave & Play Barbie,” which led to an Etsy listing for a doll called “Borbie,” rather than an official Barbie product. The review says the Etsy listing offered the hairy doll in three versions, each with a razor, and described it as a humorous gift for adults. It also says the listing explicitly warned that the doll was not for children because the included razor was real. The review found no description of the doll as transgender; it reports that this interpretation was added by Dutch social-media users. Taken together, the packaging and listing identify the video’s doll as a parody product, not a new Mattel Barbie. The review distinguishes this doll from an actual Mattel release: it notes that Mattel had released a Barbie in 2022 as an homage to transgender actor Laverne Cox, but says there is no connection between that official doll and the hairy Etsy doll.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Visuals in the viral video show Yogi Adityanath praising Gadar 2. Gadar 2 received tax exemption from the government of India

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim combined two assertions: that a viral clip showed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath praising Gadar 2, and that the film had received a tax exemption from the government of India. The review traced the clip to a different film and found no official exemption announcement for Gadar 2 in the reporting it examined. To check the video, the investigators searched for the original version of Adityanath’s speech and found full-length videos from June 2022. The speech was delivered at a screening of Samrat Prithviraj, where he praised that film’s cast and crew and announced a tax exemption for it in Uttar Pradesh. The review says the viral video used cropped and flipped footage from this speech, making it appear that he was discussing Gadar 2. For the tax-exemption assertion, the review examined a Times Now report based on information from Zee Studios, a producer of Gadar 2. That report said the studio had applied for exemptions in various states and had received an encouraging response. But the review found no reports confirming that a state or central government had issued an order granting an exemption. An application and a positive response are not evidence that an exemption was officially granted. The evidence therefore supports the review’s conclusion that the clip was misattributed and the claimed exemption was unconfirmed.

dpaCulture & entertainment

TV-programma laat kinderen live op TV seksspeeltjes uitpakken.

Publisher’s rating: De online gedeelde beelden vormen maar de helft van een video uit een campagne tegen kinderprostitutie. Door alleen de eerste 30 seconden te delen valt essentiële context en de boodschap van de campagne weg. De video werd verspreid door Free A Girl, een stichting tegen seksuele uitbuiting van kinderen. Het maakte geen deel uit van een live televisieprogramma.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Photo which shows Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) washing his right foot in a wash basin

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photograph of Shah Rukh Khan with his foot in a wash basin, presented as an actual image of him washing his right foot. FACTLY says the image is instead a behind-the-scenes still associated with the 2017 film *Jab Harry Met Sejal*. The distinction matters: the picture relates to a scene in the movie, but the review identifies it as a production still rather than an ordinary photograph of Khan washing his foot. FACTLY describes tracing the image through reverse-image search. That search led to a 2021 tweet describing Harry as going back to convey his love to Sejal; keyword searches then pointed the reviewers to *Jab Harry Met Sejal*. The article says the still appears in the film before its climax. Because the viral image appeared to show the scene from a different angle, the reviewers looked for behind-the-scenes material rather than treating the movie scene alone as proof of the image’s origin. The decisive evidence reported by FACTLY was behind-the-scenes footage on the official Red Chillies Entertainment YouTube channel: the review says the viral still appears at the 1:15 mark. It concludes that the post misrepresented a behind-the-scenes still as an actual photo. This supports the review’s assessment of the image’s provenance; the excerpt does not establish further details about the circumstances of the filming or the person who originally circulated the claim.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

A singer in the Indian Idol singing exactly like Mohammad Rafi

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a viral video presented as showing a singer performing like Mohammad Rafi on Indian Idol. Its review says the clip combined genuine show footage with footage of Md Shanu, a boy lip-syncing to Rafi’s recording of “Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil.” The review’s central distinction is that the video’s apparent performance on the show was constructed through editing: “Shanu did not perform this on the Indian Idol Stage, his footage is cross cut to the reaction shots of the judges and contestants sitting in the gallery to create an illusion that this is an actual Indian Idol performance.” The review describes several checks supporting that account. It says an internet keyword search did not locate an Indian Idol episode featuring the person singing this song. A further search identified Shanu and a channel where the video had been uploaded. The review also notes that audience cheering, typical of an Indian Idol episode, is absent from the viral clip. Most importantly, it says footage from an official SET India video of season 13 showed the same judges’ and contestants’ reaction shots, but that video featured singers Mani and Navdeep—not Shanu performing the Rafi song. FACTLY therefore concluded that the clip used Shanu lip-syncing to the original track, edited together with reaction shots taken from a different Indian Idol performance. Its finding addresses whether the viral video depicts a genuine Indian Idol performance; it does not establish that Shanu actually sang like Rafi. The review states that “the viral video is not a performance from a real Indian Idol episode” and labels the claim false.