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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

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: பிடிஆர் பழனிவேல் தியாகராஜனுக்கு ஆதரவு; பாஜக.,வை விட்டு விலகுவதாக நயினார் நாகேந்திரன் கூறினாரா? I junior vikatan not posted this news card on nainar nagendran and ptr palanivel thiagarajan

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo தமிழ் Rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media card saying that BJP MLA Nainar Nagendran supported Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P. T. R. Palanivel Thiagarajan and was considering leaving the BJP after an incident involving a slipper thrown at the minister’s car. The review says that the incident had prompted controversy, and that BJP leader Dr. Saravanan had apologized to the minister and announced he was leaving the party. The card implied Nainar might follow him.

El Detector / Univision NoticasPolitics & government

Barack Obama se quedó con 33 millones de páginas de documentos tras dejar la Presidencia, “muchos de ellos clasificados”.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns Donald Trump’s August 12 allegation that Barack Obama kept 33 million pages of presidential records after leaving office, many classified and possibly nuclear. The review says the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) responded that same day. It reported that it had taken “exclusive legal and physical custody” of Obama’s presidential records when he left office in 2017, as required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA). The review also says NARA stated that Obama has no control over where or how the agency stores those records. The key distinction is between Obama personally keeping the records and NARA holding them. The review reports that presidential records are distributed between NARA facilities in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with the classified records located in Washington. It also explains that the Obama Presidential Library contains millions of records but is administered by NARA. The records are not described as Obama’s personal cache: the library’s materials remain under NARA’s ownership and management. The article gives figures from a document about the planned library: 1.5 billion pages of born-digital records, approximately 30 million pages of paper documents, and 30,000 objects. It says the Obama Foundation’s Chicago building may display some records and objects, but as loans from NARA, which retains ownership and management. Thus, the 30 million figure refers to paper records associated with the presidential library, not evidence that Obama kept 33 million pages after leaving office. The review’s account of NARA’s custody and the stated loan arrangement directly addresses the allegation.

FACTLYPolitics & government

A group of people abusing Nitish Kumar after he ended alliance with NDA & joined hands with Mahagatbandhan of RJD & Congress

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim links a video of people abusing Nitish Kumar to his August 2022 decision to end JD(U)’s alliance with the BJP and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan. FACTLY’s review says Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister on 9 August 2022, announced the alliance change, and took the oath again on 10 August. But the review found that the video was already circulating in 2020, so it did not show people reacting to those political developments. To investigate the video’s origin, FACTLY searched online using relevant keywords and found a full-length version posted on Facebook on 30 April 2020. The review says the clip shared in the claim came from the full video’s final few seconds. In that longer video, people who described themselves as Bihari migrant workers in Tamil Nadu appealed to Kumar to bring them home during the first COVID-19 lockdown; the review reports that they also abused him. The review therefore identifies a different setting for the abuse than the one asserted in the claim: an appeal about getting home during lockdown, rather than a response to the 2022 alliance change. It also qualifies its findings: FACTLY says it could not verify the people’s identities or the incident’s exact date and location. Its conclusion rests on the video’s documented circulation by April 2020 and the contents of the longer version, not on independent confirmation of who filmed it or precisely where and when.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: அதிமுக.,வின் கடைசி முதலமைச்சர் நான்தான் என்று எடப்பாடி பழனிசாமி கூறினாரா? I edappadi palanisamy not said that he was the last chief minister from admk

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo தமிழ் Rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media post attributing to Edappadi Palanisamy the statement that he was the last chief minister to govern Tamil Nadu on behalf of the AIADMK. Fact Crescendo places the post in the political discussion surrounding the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, which had recently concluded amid criticism of the DMK government. The review says the alleged statement was being shared on Twitter and Facebook in that setting. (The article excerpt does not provide the post itself or its date.) To check the attribution, Fact Crescendo says it contacted Junior Vikatan, the outlet the viral claim was associated with, and the AIADMK IT wing. It reports that Junior Vikatan had not published such a report and that its inquiries confirmed Palanisamy had not made the statement. The excerpt does not reproduce responses from either contact or describe additional verification steps, so the account of those checks is the evidence available here. On that basis, the review concludes that the statement was falsely attributed to Palanisamy. Its finding addresses the specific quotation and attribution circulating online; the supplied excerpt does not establish who created the claim or provide the original social-media post’s provenance.

FACTLYPolitics & government

A poster saying ‘Nitish sabke hai’ (Nitish belongs to all) was put up after Nitish Kumar’s resignation on 09 August 2022 & the termination of his party’s ties with the BJP

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a poster of Nitish Kumar bearing the slogan ‘Nitish sabke hai’ (‘Nitish belongs to all’), said to have been put up after his 9 August 2022 resignation as Bihar chief minister and his party’s break with the BJP. The review confirms that those political events occurred, but finds that the poster image was already in circulation well before them. It says the poster was installed outside the JD(U) head office in Patna around October 2020, so the image does not establish that a new poster was put up in response to the 2022 events. To trace the image, the review reports a reverse image search that located a Facebook post from 8 October 2020 containing the same poster. It then describes finding an earlier post by Aajtak editor and anchor Chitra Tripathi, dated 6 October 2020, and says comparison showed that image matched the one being shared in the claim. These findings support the review’s conclusion that the image predates the alleged 2022 installation. The review also points to two further records from October 2020: a BBC Marathi article using the same image and describing the slogan’s use in the 2020 elections, and an ABP Bihar YouTube video showing the poster outside the JD(U) head office. It cautions that the exact installation date could not be established; its conclusion is that the poster was from October 2020 or earlier, not that its precise posting date is known.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Nitish Kumar said, ‘Under any circumstances, there is no question of going back with RJD.’

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video circulated after JD(U) left the NDA and allied with the RJD. The post presented Nitish Kumar’s words about there being “no question of going back” as a statement that he would not rejoin the RJD. The review instead identifies the footage as an older speech about the BJP: it says Kumar made the comments during a Bihar assembly session on 18 February 2014, and that he was saying his party would not join the BJP again. That makes the claimed target of the remarks—not the quoted words alone—the key issue. To trace the footage, the review reports that a reverse-image search on Yandex led to a 54-second YouTube video titled “Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s historic speech about BJP in Bihar Assembly.” It says the viral video was a slightly longer version uploaded on 12 December 2021. The review then describes finding a video posted by India Today that contained the full assembly speech, as well as media reports from 2014 about it. The longer speech and contemporaneous reporting supply the context missing from the clipped version. The review says the full video shows Kumar making the “no question of going back” remark, while a Jagran report described him as rejecting the prospect of rejoining the BJP in the assembly on 18 February 2014. The review also points to a live webcast of that assembly session, locating the remarks at about 1 hour, 20 minutes, 10 seconds. On the evidence described, the excerpt was detached from a speech about the BJP and recast as a statement about the RJD.