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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

Mohan Bhagwat said Rahul Gandhi is the future leader, and he should not be taken lightly

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The viral image attributed to Mohan Bhagwat said Rahul Gandhi was “the leader of the future” and that taking him lightly would be costly. FACTLY’s review says it found no credible reporting supporting the attribution. It also checked the official Twitter handles of the RSS and Bhagwat and found no posts supporting the viral claim. The image’s use of Bhagwat’s photograph did not establish that he had made the quoted remarks. FACTLY traced the photo to a Times of India article showing Bhagwat at the 2018 event “The Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective.” According to the review, his remarks at that event included praise for Congress’s role in the freedom struggle, but he did not make statements about Rahul Gandhi there. FACTLY concludes that the image falsely attributed the statement to Bhagwat. Its conclusion rests on the absence of supporting reports or official posts, together with the identification of the photograph’s separate event provenance—not on evidence that Bhagwat made the statement elsewhere.

dpaPolitics & government

In China heeft een staatsgreep plaatsgevonden, Xi Jinping en zijn familie zijn gearresteerd.

Publisher’s rating: Afgelopen weekend vond er geen staatsgreep in China plaats. Geruchten hierover gingen online een eigen leven leiden. Geen enkel betrouwbaar nieuwsmedium heeft iets dergelijks bevestigd.

The claim concerned online rumours that a coup had removed China’s leadership and that Xi Jinping and his family had been taken prisoner. The review places those rumours in the weekend of 24–25 September 2022. It says speculation intensified after Xi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Uzbekistan, left earlier than expected, and was reportedly not seen publicly for a time, while several senior officers were said to have been arrested. The review presents these details as the setting for the rumours, not as proof of a coup. [S1]