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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

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Photo of a girl holding a placard urging people to boycott Bollywood films

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines a social-media image presented as a girl holding a placard calling for people to boycott Bollywood films. It reports that the placard’s message was altered: the original image showed a protester holding a sign about rape, not Bollywood. The review says the original placard read “DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DRESS! TELL THEM NOT TO RAPE!!” To check the image, the review describes a reverse image search that found a similar photograph on Getty Images. It reports that Getty’s description identified the scene as a protest in Amritsar on December 20, 2012, and connected it to protests after the December 16 Delhi bus gang rape. The review also says other news websites published the same photo with similar descriptions in December 2012. These details identify the image as one from a protest about sexual violence and show that its original placard carried a different message. The review therefore concludes that the image was altered before being shared as evidence of a Bollywood boycott.

FACTLYCulture & entertainment

Actor Chandrasekhar Vaidya died on 31 August 2022 at the age of 98

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns Chandrasekhar Vaidya, the actor who played Arya Sumanth in the 1987 television series Ramayan, and says he died on 31 August 2022 at age 98. FACTLY’s review says the images in the post were checked and identified as Vaidya, then describes searching for reports of his death. It says the reports it found place his death in 2021, rather than on the date asserted by the post. That chronology directly contradicts the claim that he died on 31 August 2022. The review’s account is internally inconsistent about the precise 2021 date: its opening says 16 July, a later passage says 16 June, and its concluding sentence again says 16 July. The excerpt therefore supports the central correction that the reported death was in 2021, but does not provide a consistent basis for choosing between those two dates. It also reports that Vaidya was 98, so the age in the post is not the point the review disputes; the misleading element is the claimed 2022 death date.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

Kim Nam-Joon Became The Most Handsome Man !!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns social-media posts saying BTS member Kim Nam-Joon (RM) became the world’s most handsome man, with Henry Cavill and Robert Pattinson as runners-up, in a TC Candler survey. The fact-check examined whether Kim had been selected for 2022. It reports that TC Candler does not run an audience survey to choose one “most handsome man”; instead, it selects people for annual lists of 100 Most Beautiful Faces and 100 Most Handsome Faces. The review says preferences for those lists are accepted only during December, so preferences for the 2022 list had not yet been submitted when it checked the claim. The review also reports that neither Kim Nam-Joon nor Henry Cavill had ever reached the final five of TC Candler’s annual handsome-faces selection. It further says TC Candler itself responded to the viral posts by stating that reports attributing Kim’s selection to an audience-preference survey were false. These points address both the claimed result and the posts’ description of how that result supposedly came about. On the evidence presented, the review concludes that the posts falsely described Kim as selected by TC Candler as the most handsome man of the world for 2022. Its stated distinction is that TC Candler selects lists of handsome faces, rather than conducting the claimed survey to choose a single most handsome man; the 2022 selection process was also not yet open for preferences at the time described.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCulture & entertainment

ලොව කඩවසම්ම පුද්ගලයා ලෙස BTS සංගීත කණ්ඩායමේ “Kim Nam-Joon” තේරී පත් වුණාද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned social-media posts saying that BTS member Kim Nam-Joon (RM) had been selected as the world’s most handsome person for 2022, supposedly through a TC Candler poll. The review says some versions also claimed he had beaten actor Henry Cavill. It investigated whether TC Candler had made that selection, rather than whether Nam-Joon was considered handsome. S1 describes the circulating claim as: “2022 වසරේ ලෝකයේ සිටන කඩවසම්ම පුද්ගලයා ලෙස තේරීපත් වන්නට BTS නම් සංගීත කණ්ඩායමේ ගායකයකු වන “Kim Nam-Joon” හට හැකි වී තිබෙනවා.” The review says it checked TC Candler’s website and found that it did not conduct a poll to select one “most handsome person.” Instead, its annual selections were lists of 100 beautiful faces and 100 handsome faces. The review also says voting for the 2022 selections had not yet begun; voting was due to start in December. Thus, the alleged 2022 result could not already have been announced as described. S1 states: “එහි කිසිදු අවස්ථාවක ලොව කඩවසම්ම පුද්ගලයා ලෙස තෝරා පත් කර ගැනීමක් සිදු නොකරන අතර එම සමීක්ෂණයෙන් තෝරා ගනු ලබන්නේ, ලස්සනම මුහුණ හිමි 100 දෙනෙකු(100 Most Beautiful Faces) සහ කඩවසම් මුහුණ හිමි පුද්ගලයන් 100 (100 Most Handsome Faces)දෙනෙකු පමණයි.” The review further reports that TC Candler had issued a statement rejecting reports that Nam-Joon had been selected, saying the 2022 results had not been released and voting had not started. It says neither Nam-Joon nor Cavill had appeared among the final five in the annual handsome-faces selection. These points address the specific claim of a completed 2022 selection and a single winner, not a general assessment of either person’s appearance. S1 reports: “2022 වසරේ ජයග්‍රහණයන් පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක් ඔවුන් විසින් මෙතෙක් එළි නොදැක් වූ බවත් 2022 වසර සඳහා මනාප ලබා දී ඇරඹී නැති බවත් ලබන දෙසැම්බර් වස දී මනාප ලබා දීම ඇරඹෙන බවත්, ව්‍යාජ සටහන් හුවමාරු කර නොගන්නා ලෙසත් ඔවුන් ඉහත නිවේදනයෙන් වැඩි දුරටත් දන්වා තිබුණා.”

Fact Crescendo CambodiaCulture & entertainment

អ្នក​ប្រើ​ប្រាស់​ហ្វេស​ប៊ុក​ម្នាក់​ បង្ហោះ​វីដេអូ​ឃ្លីប​មួយ​​ដែល​បង្ហាញ​បុរស​ម្នាក់​វាយ​កម្ទេច​ទូរទស្សន៍​គ្រឿង ក្រោយ​ពី​បាន​ទស្សនា​កម្មវិធី​ប្រឡង​សមត្ថភាព Cambodian Idol ដែល​ប្រកាស​ឱ្យ​បេក្ខជន ស៊ឹម ច័ន្ទពន្លឺ ជាប់​ទៅ​កាន់​វគ្គ​ផ្ដាច់​ព្រ័ត្រ។​

Publisher’s rating: Altered