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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Elections & voting fact checks

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

5,414 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYElections & voting

Video of people chanting Jayant Chaudhary slogans during Amit Shah’s recent ‘Jan Vishwas Yatra’ campaign in Kairana

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing people chanting slogans for RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary during Amit Shah’s door-to-door campaign in Kairana, Uttar Pradesh. The review reports that the video was doctored: the people in the footage were not chanting Chaudhary’s name, and the audio had been altered. The review identifies the footage as associated with Amit Shah’s campaign, while distinguishing the original audio from the version circulating with the claim. To investigate, the reviewers searched reverse images from the viral video and found a visually similar video published by ABC News 24×7. They also examined a short segment published by Hindustan Live and a video of the Kairana campaign on the BJP’s official YouTube channel. In the material they describe, the chants include “Modi, Modi,” “Jai Sri Ram,” “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” and “Modi-Yogi Zindabad”—not slogans for Jayant Chaudhary. The review further cites a Jagran report that slogans including “Jai Sri Ram” and “Modi-Yogi Zindabad” were raised during Shah’s campaign, and says Jagran later clarified that the viral video was edited. Taken together, the review’s comparison of versions and its cited campaign reporting support the conclusion that the video’s audio was altered to make it sound as though the crowd was chanting Chaudhary’s name.

FACTLYElections & voting

Video showing people chasing away BJP candidates in Uttar Pradesh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video said to show people chasing away BJP candidates in Uttar Pradesh. FACTLY’s review says the footage instead shows BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee facing protests in Chuchura, West Bengal, during the state’s 2021 general election. It reports that clashes occurred between BJP and TMC workers when Chatterjee visited a polling booth, and that local TMC workers chased her. The review concludes that the video has nothing to do with Uttar Pradesh. To trace the footage, FACTLY noted a Zee 24 Ghanta logo in the video and searched online using relevant keywords. It says this led to the original news report, whose title identified Chatterjee and the Chuchura protests. The review also cites another news agency’s report that her cavalcade was allegedly attacked by local TMC supporters during a polling-booth visit on 10 April 2021. The review distinguishes the footage’s actual origin from separate reports of BJP leaders being chased away by local residents in Uttar Pradesh. It says such incidents had occurred, but that this particular video was old and depicted an event in Bengal, not Uttar Pradesh.

Vishvas NewsElections & voting

उत्तर प्रदेश विधानसभा निवडणुकांचा आता माहोल तयार झाला आहे. रस्त्यांपासून ते सोशल मीडियापर्यंत सर्वत्र निवडणुकीशी संबंधित कामे दिसून येत आहेत. या सगळ्यामध्ये आता बसपा प्रमुख मायावती यांचे एक वक्तव्य व्हायरल होत आहे. यामध्ये ते भाजपला पाठिंबा देत असल्याचे सांगण्यात येत आहे.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a statement attributed to BSP chief Mayawati that she would support the BJP, circulated in the run-up to Uttar Pradesh’s 2022 Assembly elections as if it were a current position. The review found that the statement was old and concerned a different election: Mayawati had made it in the context of Uttar Pradesh MLC elections in October 2020. It therefore did not establish that she was then supporting the BJP in the Assembly election campaign. The review’s conclusion was that the viral post was misleading because it presented the old statement in a new context. [S1: “मायावतींचे जुने विधान, जे एमएलसी निवडणुकीशी संबंधित होते, ते आता विधानसभा निवडणुकीच्या तोंडावर चुकीच्या संदर्भात व्हायरल होत आहे.”] To investigate, Vishvas News says it used reverse-image search on the viral post and searched for related original reporting. It found a Zee News report dated October 29, 2020, describing Mayawati’s remarks about defeating the Samajwadi Party’s second candidate in the MLC elections. The review also says it located a Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Facebook Live from that date; at about the 14-minute mark, it found the same text as in the viral screenshot. [S1: “29 ऑक्टोबर 2020 रोजी प्रकाशित झालेल्या या बातमीत मायावतींनी MLC निवडणुकीत सपाला उत्तर देण्यासाठी भाजपला पाठिंबा देण्याचे सांगितले होते.”] [S1: “लाइव्हच्या 14व्या मिनिटाला, आम्हाला तोच मजकूर दिसला, जो आता व्हायरल होत आहे.”] The review further reports finding an October 29, 2020 ANI video of Mayawati’s press conference. Its description says she discussed BSP votes going to a BJP or other party candidate in future UP MLC elections to defeat the Samajwadi Party’s second candidate. Vishvas News also says BSP national spokesperson Faizan Khan identified the statement as old and shared in the wrong context. Together, the cited reporting and video provenance place the remarks in the MLC contest, not the later Assembly-election setting implied by the viral post. [S1: “मायावतींच्या पत्रकार परिषदेचा हा व्हिडिओ 29 ऑक्टोबर 2020 रोजी अपलोड करण्यात आला होता.”] [S1: “त्यांच्या सोबत व्हायरल पोस्ट व्हाट्सअँप ला शेअर केली. विश्वास न्यूज सोबत बोलताना ते म्हणाले, हे एक जुने वक्तव्य आहे जे आता चुकीच्या संदर्भासह व्हायरल होत आहे.”]

FACTLYElections & voting

Recent video of people blocking the cavalcade of Smriti Irani in UP ahead of Assembly elections

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as showing people blocking Smriti Irani’s cavalcade recently in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of Assembly elections. FACTLY’s review says the video instead shows an incident from 2020, so it was not recent in the context in which it was shared. The review describes its image-checking method: screenshots from the video were searched using Google Reverse Image Search, which returned similar videos uploaded in October 2020. It also says news agencies reported that Congress workers protesting over the Hathras rape incident blocked Irani’s cavalcade in Varanasi. That earlier date and setting contradict the post’s presentation of the video as recent election-period footage.

Vishvas NewsElections & voting

ইউপি সহ দেশের পাঁচটি রাজ্যের বিধানসভা নির্বাচনের মধ্যে, প্রধানমন্ত্রী নরেন্দ্র মোদির একটি ভিডিও সোশ্যাল মিডিয়ায় ফের ভাইরাল হচ্ছে। এতে তাকে হাত নাড়তে দেখা যায়। সোশ্যাল মিডিয়া ইউজাররা এই ভিডিও ভাইরাল করে দাবি করছেন যে প্রধানমন্ত্রী মোদী খালি মাঠে হাত নাড়াচ্ছেন।

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYElections & voting

Video of Sonu Sood endorsing Charanjit Channi as the CM face for the upcoming state elections in Punjab

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as Sonu Sood endorsing Charanjit Singh Channi as the chief ministerial face for the upcoming Punjab elections. FACTLY’s investigation concluded that the video had been edited to create that impression: the relevant remarks came from an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt, in which Sood was speaking about himself and his future political plans, not endorsing Channi. The review says he did not endorse anyone as the candidate in that interview. FACTLY describes two checks into the video’s provenance. Reverse image searches of screenshots found the same video on the official Facebook and Twitter accounts of the Indian National Congress. The review then traced the portion discussing a chief ministerial candidate to Sood’s interview with Dutt for Mojo Story; it says the segment from around 13:15 was clipped to make it appear that Sood was endorsing Channi. The missing context is central: according to the review, Dutt asked Sood about being a chief ministerial candidate and entering politics, and his answer concerned choosing an ideal candidate. Dutt also said the Congress party had edited the clip and that Sood had been talking about himself and plans to contest elections in the future. This evidence supports the conclusion that the circulated clip misrepresented the interview rather than documenting an endorsement.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaElections & voting

ඉදිරි අවුරුදු පහේ පසුතැවිල්ලක් නොවී සිටීමට ඡන්දය මාලිමාවට දෙන ලෙස පේෂල මනෝජ්ගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක්?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined a social-media post attributing to Peshala Manoj a call to vote for the Malimawa, saying that this would prevent regret over the next five years. It reports that the post used his name and photograph, and says the publisher looked for reports of the statement in mainstream media before contacting Manoj directly. According to the review, Manoj said the claim was false and that he had not made such a statement. The review then compared the circulating post with a Facebook post published on July 27, 2020, on the official page of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. It says the wording in the circulating post matched a statement attributed in that earlier post to musician Nadeeka Guruge, rather than to Manoj. On that basis, the review concludes that the circulating image had been edited: it substituted Manoj’s name and photograph into a post associated with Guruge’s statement. It also expressly limits its conclusion to the attribution and editing of the social-media post, saying it does not comment on the political party Manoj represents.