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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

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

12,740 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

Image ofBhajan Lal Sharma traveling as an ordinary citizen on a government bus just two months before becoming the CM of Rajasthan

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim says the image shows Bhajan Lal Sharma traveling as an ordinary citizen on a government bus just two months before he became Rajasthan’s chief minister. The review identifies the image as showing Sharma boarding a bus, but disputes the circumstances attached to it: it says the photograph was made during a protest against the Ashok Gehlot government in August 2023, when Sharma was apprehended and transported by bus. Thus, the image itself is not presented as fabricated; the misleading element is the claim about what Sharma was doing and why he was on the bus. To investigate, the review says it followed a search for relevant keywords to a news report about viral images of Sharma, then checked Sharma’s social-media accounts for images associated with the protest. It reports finding a matching person in a blue kurta behind Sharma, and says the images’ accompanying description linked them to the BJP’s “NahiSahegaRajasthan” event. The review also points to a broadcast of the protest on the Rajasthan BJP unit’s YouTube channel and related news reports. On the evidence described, the photograph belongs to a political protest context, not an ordinary-citizen journey as asserted in the post.

dpaPolitics & government

Das ist eine echte Aufnahme der ungeschminkten Annalena Baerbock.

Publisher’s rating: Das Bild wurde bearbeitet. Das Originalfoto wurde auf der Weltklimakonferenz aufgenommen.

The dpa investigation identifies the circulating image as an altered version of a real photograph—not an unedited image of Baerbock. The image was shared with the claim that it showed how she looked “without a makeup artist,” and dpa notes that it made her appear considerably older than in current media images. The original scene was a press conference at COP28 in Dubai: Baerbock spoke there on December 8, 2023, about protecting civilians in Gaza. To trace the image, the review compared it with video of that press conference filmed from a similar perspective and with photographs taken by a dpa photographer. It reports matching details in the background, the folds of Baerbock’s dress, strands of hair at her left temple, and her facial expression. Those similarities establish the photograph’s source, while the comparison supports the finding that the image circulating online had been manipulated. The evidence therefore does not support presenting that image as an untouched photograph.