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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.

12,749 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

BBC removes Kashmir from the Indian map

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a screenshot of a BBC report showing an Indian map without Jammu and Kashmir, which was being circulated as a recent report in the wake of controversy over the BBC documentary on Narendra Modi. FACTLY says the screenshot was not from BBC coverage following the documentary’s release: it was an old image, most likely from a 2015 report about Modi’s foreign visits. The review’s conclusion is that the image was misleadingly linked to the contemporary controversy, not that BBC had never published an incomplete map of India. FACTLY distinguishes the screenshot’s earlier provenance from later, separate instances of BBC maps that it describes as distorted. It reports that in 2021 BBC apologized after a report related to the US elections carried an inaccurate map, and that a June 2021 report about the delta variant also displayed a distorted map before replacing it with the Indian tricolour. Those examples provide context about prior BBC map errors, but do not establish that the viral screenshot came from a report published after the documentary.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasPolitics & government

Confirmaron la muerte de Vladimir Putin.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned two viral Facebook videos whose titles said Vladimir Putin’s death had been confirmed. The review identifies one video as posted on January 25, 2023, and the other on January 20; by January 30, they had reportedly accumulated more than 40,000 and 60,000 views, respectively. The investigation says it watched both videos and found that, despite their titles, their narrators said Putin “could” have died rather than presenting confirmation or proof of his death. («Los dos videos viralizados aseguran falsamente en sus títulos que la muerte de Putin ha sido confirmada, pero una vez que los reproducimos encontramos que cambian la fórmula y que el narrador en realidad dice que el mandatario ruso “podría haber fallecido”.») The review also checked the Russian presidency’s website for reports of Putin’s activities. It reports that the Kremlin described him meeting representatives of Russia’s Jewish community on January 26, participating by videoconference in a Security Council meeting on January 27, and meeting the governor of Vologda region by videoconference on January 30. These were events after the videos were posted, so they do not independently establish what was true at the moment of posting; the review presents them as evidence against the videos’ ongoing assertion. («Según informó el Kremlin, Putin estuvo reunido el 26 de enero de 2023 con representantes de la comunidad judía en Rusia, el 27 de enero participó por videoconferencia en una reunión con los miembros permanentes del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU y el 30 de enero, también por videoconferencia, sostuvo una reunión con el gobernador de la región de Vólogda. Todas estas actividades son posteriores a la publicación de los dos videos objeto de esta verificación.») The videos invoked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s January 19 remarks in Davos, but the review says he raised doubt about whether Putin was still alive rather than declaring him dead. It also reports that the videos’ references to CIA director William Burns did not substantiate the claim: the narrator mentioned Burns’s visit to Ukraine, while the review’s search found no recent Burns statement confirming Putin’s death. («Para intentar sustentar esa posibilidad se basan principalmente en un discurso que dio el presidente ucraniano, Volodymyr Zelensky, el 19 de enero de 2023 ante el Foro Económico Mundial en Davos, Suiza, en el que sembró dudas sobre su homólogo ruso al decir que no sabía si Putin “todavía está vivo”.» «En el título de uno de los videos también se dice que quienes “confirmaron” la supuesta muerte de Putin fueron el mandatario ucraniano y el jefe de la CIA, William Burns. Sin embargo, en la grabación, el narrador tampoco sustenta esto y se limita a mencionar una reciente visita a Ucrania de Burns para reunirse con Zelensky.»)

FACTLYPolitics & government

Image of Rahul Gandhi with producer of BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a social-media image said to show Rahul Gandhi with a producer of the BBC documentary *India: The Modi Question*. FACTLY identifies the man pictured as Jeremy Corbyn, Britain’s Labour Party member and former opposition leader—not a producer of the documentary. The article says the image was taken in London in May 2022, when Gandhi met Corbyn, and notes that Sam Pitroda was also with Gandhi at the meeting. [[S1: “The person with Rahul Gandhi in the picture is Britain’s Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and not the producer of BBC documentary on Gujarat riots. The image was taken in May 2022 when Rahul Gandhi called on Corbyn in London.”]] To check the image’s provenance, the review reports that a reverse image search found news reports publishing the same photograph, which it dates to the May 2022 London meeting. That chronology conflicts with the post’s implication that the pictured meeting was with the documentary’s producer. [[S1: “A reverse image search of the viral photo yielded multiple news reports that published the same image (here, here & here). These reports date back to May 2022, when Rahul Gandhi along with Sam Pitroda met him in London.”]] The review also distinguishes Corbyn from the people it identifies as responsible for producing the documentary: Richard Cookson as series producer and Mike Radford as executive producer, citing the BBC. It says it found no reports linking Corbyn or the Labour Party to the documentary. The evidence presented therefore identifies the man in the photograph as Corbyn and does not support the claimed producer connection. [[S1: “according to BBC, Richard Cookson is the series Producer and Mike Radford is the Executive Producer of the controversial documentary series.”]] [[S1: “we could not find any reports linking Jeremy Corbyn or the Labour party to the documentary.”]]