Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Economy & business fact checks

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

7,091 published reviews in this topic

Factcrescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

A Recent Job Posting By OceanGate For A Submersible Pilot!

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned an OceanGate job advertisement for a Submersible Pilot/Marine Technician that circulated after the Titan submersible disaster. Social-media posts portrayed it as an immediate replacement hiring effort. The review says it checked the advertised listing against archived copies rather than relying on the posts’ timing: “Archived versions of the listing show it was active on the company’s employment page as early as June 2020.” The investigation reports that it found multiple archived versions of the same job post in the Wayback Machine, spanning August 2020 to May 2023. Those records predate the Titan tragedy and undercut the implication that the listing was newly created in response to it. The review also notes that the listing remained online after the submersible went missing, a fact that could make an older posting appear current when viewed without its archive history: “making it clear that the post was not published after the death of the company CEO and the other passengers.” The review says OceanGate’s website was no longer live when the team attempted to check it, so its account of the listing’s history rests on archived webpage versions. It concludes that the post had been on the site since August 2020, not that a new job opening was announced after the disaster. The key distinction is between an old listing remaining accessible and a recent posting.

Belarusian Investigative CenterEconomy & business

Экономика Минска растет темпами, близкими к лучшим мировым показателям

Publisher’s rating: В январе 2023 года ВВП Минска, который называется валовым региональным продуктом, упал более чем на 7% по сравнению с январем 2022 года. По итогам пяти месяцев падение составило 2,5% к тому же периоду прошлого года. Из этой разницы получились почти 5% восстановительного роста. То есть, экономика столицы продолжает оставаться в минусе, только в меньшем.

Soch Fact CheckEconomy & business

A cargo ship carrying Russian oil has refused to unload its consignment until Imran Khan “personally comes to receive it”.

Publisher’s rating: Satire

The claim concerned a cargo ship carrying Russian oil that supposedly would not unload until former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan personally received the cargo. Soch Fact Check traced the claim to a visual posted on 2 April 2023 by Twitter user @drfatima_pti. The visual showed Khan against a background of cargo ships and repeated the alleged refusal in text. The review’s account identifies the item as a visual, rather than reporting evidence that a ship or its crew had made such a demand: it says the post showed Khan “against a backdrop of cargo ships” and included the text “Russian Oil cargo refuses to unload until former Pak PM Imran Khan personally comes to receive it.” The review’s key check was the visual’s provenance and labeling. It reports finding a “Standup Pakistan” logo at the top left and the word “Satire” at the top right. It then searched social media for “Standup Pakistan” and found the visual on that page’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. The review further notes that the page was categorized as “Satire/Parody” on Facebook and Instagram. Those details identify the image as material from a satire account and show that the image itself carried a satire label; they do not substantiate the supposed shipboard refusal. The review also distinguishes the real oil shipment from the satirical claim. It reports that a ship carrying about 330,000 barrels of Russian crude docked at Karachi on 11 June 2023, and that the shipment was the first under an April deal between Russia and Pakistan. The existence of that shipment does not establish that it refused to unload or demanded Khan’s presence. The review’s conclusion is that the viral visual presented a satirical report as real news.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaEconomy & business

වසා දැමීමට තීරණයවූ මීපේ හයිඩ්රාමනි කර්මාන්තශාලාව, ජවිපෙ බලය හිමි, මහව සමුපකාරයෙන් මිලට ගෙන නැහැ !

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim was that the Mahawa Cooperative, described in the posts as under Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) control, had bought Hirdaramani’s factory in Meepe after its closure was announced—and would keep the factory operating. The review identifies this as the specific claim circulating on social media, rather than a report about a different factory or cooperative. It says it found no coverage of such a purchase by mainstream media outlets: “ප්‍රධාන ධාරාවේ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයක් මගින් මෙවන් පුවතක් වාර්තා කර ඇතිද යන්න පිලිබදවයි. නමුත් එවැන්නක් දක්නට ලැබුණේ නැහැ.” The investigation describes checking the company’s public response and asking the Mahawa Cooperative’s chair, Chandraratne Bandara, about the alleged acquisition. The chair said the social-media claim that the cooperative had decided to buy the factory was false; the JVP media division also rejected the posts. The review’s account of the chair’s response is: “මහව සමුපකාරයේ සභාපති චන්ද්‍රරත්න බණ්ඩාරගෙන් අප මේ පිලිබදව විමසා බැලු විට ඔහු පැවසුවේ ද මහව සමුපකාරය මගින් මීපේ කර්මාන්තශාලාව මිලදීගැනීමට තීරණය කරන ලද බවට පළවන සමාජ ජාලා සටහන් සම්පුර්ණ අසත්‍ය බවයි.” The factory’s closure decision did not establish that it had been sold. Hirdaramani’s stated explanation was reduced global demand for finished garments, while the company said it had not yet decided what would happen to the factory or its land. An executive told the reviewers that no decision had been made on the site: “වසා දැමීමට තීරණය කරන ලද කර්මාන්තශාලාවට , එහි භූමියට සිදුකරන්නේ කුමක්ද යන්න පිලිබදව ඉදිරියේදී තීරණය කරන බවත්, මෙතෙක් තීරණයක් ගෙන නොමැති බවත්, හයිඩ්රමනි ආයතනයේ ඉහළ නිලධාරියෙක් අප විසින් සිදුකරන ලද විමසීමේදී පැවසුවා.” The evidence described in the review therefore contradicts the asserted purchase and continuation by the cooperative.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

In den USA wurde aufgedeckt, dass Pfizer vom 12-Millionen-Dollar-Gehalt des CNN-Moderators Anderson Cooper satte 10 Millionen Dollar bezahlt hat.

Publisher’s rating: Es gibt keinerlei Belege dafür, dass Coopers Gehalt mehrheitlich von Pfizer bezahlt wird - weder direkt noch indirekt. Die höchsten Ausgaben für Fernsehwerbung stammen zudem nicht aus der Pharmaindustrie.

The allegation originated in remarks by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a 2 October 2022 interview with podcaster and YouTuber Brian Rose on the London Real channel. Kennedy said Cooper earned $12 million a year and that $10 million came from Pfizer, but the review reports that Kennedy provided no source for the salary or payment claim. The review also notes that Kennedy’s team later characterized his wording as figurative criticism of pharmaceutical advertising, while continuing to argue that much television advertising revenue came from the industry. To assess the advertising premise, the review compared US television advertising expenditures. It reports that in 2021 the largest spending companies were Procter & Gamble, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway, not pharmaceutical companies. By category, “Life and Entertainment” spending was nearly twice that of the second-ranked “Pharma and Medical Products” category. These figures undercut the suggested basis for attributing most of Cooper’s salary to Pfizer, though they do not by themselves establish Cooper’s actual salary or its source. The review also reports that CNN called Kennedy’s claims “invented and false” when responding to Politifact, but did not provide Cooper’s salary to either Politifact or the Associated Press. Kennedy’s campaign team supplied no source to AP for its US television-advertising statistics. The evidence presented therefore supports rejecting the specific Pfizer-payment allegation as unsubstantiated; it does not independently establish Cooper’s salary.

dpa Deutsche Presse-AgenturEconomy & business

Deutschland hat im März 2023 rund 70 000 Tonnen Erdöl bzw. Erdölprodukte aus dem Iran importiert.

Publisher’s rating: Es handelt sich um einen Eingabefehler. Deutschland importiert kein Erdöl aus dem Iran. Eurostat und das Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle geben an, dass die Werte von Mexiko und dem Iran vertauscht worden seien. Inzwischen sind die Zahlen korrigiert.

The claim concerned an apparent anomaly in Eurostat data: that Germany had received almost 70,000 tonnes of Iranian oil in March 2023, despite sanctions. The review reports that both Eurostat and Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA), the authority that reports monthly oil-import volumes and origins to Eurostat, confirmed the entry was a temporary database error. The review says they were contacted by dpa on June 19, 2023, and that the value had since been corrected. The decisive correction identified the source of the discrepancy: Eurostat said that the 69,737 tonnes wrongly attributed to Iran were imports from Mexico. BAFA likewise confirmed that the reported quantities originally came from Mexico. Thus the figure did not document an Iranian delivery to Germany; it was assigned to the wrong country in the data. The review states that there were no oil deliveries from Iran to Germany in March 2023. The review also gives context for why the erroneous entry attracted attention: it says Iranian oil deliveries were not permitted under EU sanctions. It notes that Germany’s foreign ministry had responded when the allegation appeared on Twitter on June 13, 2023, pointing to an erroneous report to Eurostat. The explanation is therefore not that the claim described a permitted or concealed shipment, but that the underlying statistical entry was wrong and subsequently corrected.

FACTLYEconomy & business

Adani’s takeover of trainman would result in strong competition for IRCTC

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned whether Adani’s acquisition of Trainman would create strong competition for IRCTC. FACTLY examined IRCTC’s stated relationship with Trainman and the scale of Trainman’s ticketing activity. Its account says Trainman was one of 32 authorized business-to-customer partners using IRCTC’s API services, and that acquiring the company would not change how those services operated. IRCTC said integrations and operations would continue through it.