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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.

12,746 published reviews in this topic

dpaPolitics & government

Deze video gaat over D66.

Publisher’s rating: De video is satire, maar niet op het beleid van D66. Het is een samenstelling van twee oude video's van het satirische platform De Speld. De originele video's hebben niets met D66 te maken en zijn niet serieus te nemen.

The video circulating on social media portrays government measures—payments at traffic lights and surveillance using drones—as approved by D66. The review says some viewers took it as a genuine party proposal, while others saw it as a parody. Its investigation traces the video to two older videos from De Speld, a satirical platform, rather than to original D66 material. The review reports that the circulating version was assembled from those two videos and that the attribution to D66 was added later. The source material had different subjects: one video concerned a fictional government campaign to make people pay at traffic lights; the other described a government plan to correct people’s behavior with drones. The review dates those original videos to 2011 and 2013, respectively. It says neither contains a reference to D66, and notes that D66 was not in government when either was published. That chronology and the absence of party references undercut the impression that the clips document D66 policy or parody that party’s policies. The review also reports that a person on Twitter claimed to have made the circulating video and acknowledged its underlying sources, but that the shared video no longer referred to them. It identifies the visible D66 logo in the upper-left corner as the only link to the party, added roughly ten years after the original clips appeared. Thus, the claim that this is a video about D66 is misleading: the underlying clips are De Speld satire about government policy, while the D66 association came through later editing.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video showing Joe Biden’s comments against transgender women.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulating as Joe Biden making hostile remarks about transgender women, including saying homosexuality is “an unnatural phenomenon.” FACTLY reports that the video’s audio was digitally altered: the original footage instead showed Biden discussing U.S. support for Ukraine. The review says its investigation found no evidence that Biden made the alleged comments in White House transcripts. To identify the footage, the review describes reverse-image searches of screenshots and searches using relevant keywords. Those checks led it to a CNN video published on 26 January 2023, whose description identifies it as Biden’s remarks on continued U.S. support for Ukraine. FACTLY says the original footage was recorded on 25 January 2023 and that the background, lip movements, and a gesture seen in the circulating clip matched the CNN video. The decisive comparison is the speech at the corresponding point in the original footage. According to FACTLY, Biden was discussing international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including contributions from Germany, the United Kingdom, and France—not transgender people or homosexuality. The review therefore concludes that the circulating clip retains visuals from Biden’s Ukraine remarks but has altered audio, and that it does not show him making the claimed comments.

dpaPolitics & government

Man op de achtergrond bij foto's van Biden en Zelensky is Zelensky's geheime dubbelganger

Publisher’s rating: De beweringen dat het gaat om een dubbelganger kloppen niet. De man in de foto’s is Maksim Donets. Hij is al jaren de bodyguard van Zelensky en is dus vaak in zijn schaduw te vinden.

The claim identifies a man in photos from U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv as a secret double of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The review says Biden made a surprise visit on February 20, 2023, and that online collages from the visit drew attention to a background figure alleged to be Zelensky’s double. It identifies that man as Maksim Donets, Zelensky’s bodyguard. [S1: “Op 20 februari, een paar dagen voordat Oekraïne een jaar oorlog herdacht, bracht de Amerikaanse president Joe Biden een verrassingsbezoek aan Kiev.”] [S1: “Diverse fotocollages (hier, hier, hier en hier) van het bezoek zijn online geïllustreerd met cirkels, pijltjes en cijfers. Ze vestigen de aandacht op een man die een vermeende dubbelganger van de Oekraïense president Zelensky moet voorstellen”] [S1: “De man in de foto’s is Maksim Donets. Hij is al jaren de bodyguard van Zelensky”] The review describes checking the circulated images against a video of the visit published by the Polish newspaper Fakt, and says the images were taken at and outside the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv. It also points to other photos from Biden and Zelensky’s walk through Kyiv, where Donets is clearly visible. These comparisons address the same visit and the specific man featured in the collages, rather than a similar-looking person from another event. [S1: “De gedeelde beelden zijn gemaakt voor en in het Mariinskipaleis in Kiev. Ze zijn allemaal terug te vinden in een video van het Poolse dagblad Fakt.”] [S1: “Andere foto’s van het bezoek van Biden laten zien dat de man zich niet verstopte en dus geen geheime 'body double' is. Hij is duidelijk in beeld tijdens een wandeling die Biden en Zelensky door Kiev maakten”] The review acknowledges why the resemblance attracted attention: the man and Zelensky have dark hair and similar-looking beards. But it notes differences in their clothes and, in the other photos, in facial shape and hair length. It further reports that Donets had served alongside Zelensky for years, making his presence near the president unsurprising. [S1: “Ze hebben hetzelfde donkere haar en ook de vorm van hun baard lijkt op elkaar.”] [S1: “Hij draagt een broek met camouflageprint, terwijl die van Zelensky effen is. Ook zijn de logo’s op hun zwarte truien niet gelijk.”] [S1: “Op die foto’s is ook duidelijker te zien dat de man een andere gezichtsvorm en korter haar heeft dan Zelensy.”] [S1: “Donets staat al jaren aan de zijde van Zelensky.”]