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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

“Congress is not a political party but a hidden terrorist Muslim organisation” – Subramanian Swamy

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media post attributing to Subramanian Swamy the statement that Congress is “not a political party but a hidden terrorist Muslim organisation.” Its review says it could find no evidence that Swamy made that statement, and distinguishes the alleged wording from his documented criticism of Congress and comments about terrorism. The review describes its check as an online search for whether Swamy had made the statement. It reports finding “no credible evidence to confirm” that he said it. That finding addresses the attribution itself; the excerpt does not identify a source for the social-media post or describe any direct contact with Swamy. As context, FACTLY says Swamy had been critical of Congress and recounts that in 2011 he claimed to have received threats from both Congress and Islamic terrorists, which he connected to his views and legal opposition to the Congress government then in power. It also says he had called for a clear-cut policy on Islamic terrorism. Those separate remarks do not establish that he called Congress the alleged organisation.

FACTLYPolitics & government

B. R. Ambedkar said – “The day a tribal woman becomes the President of India (the highest office), the reservation should be abolished in the country”

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a quotation attributed to B. R. Ambedkar: that reservations should be abolished when a tribal woman becomes President of India. FACTLY reports that it found no evidence that Ambedkar made the statement. Its review situates the claim in the context of Draupadi Murmu’s nomination as the NDA’s presidential candidate, but says that media agencies did not report any such earlier Ambedkar comment.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Old picture of Bal Thackeray with Eknath Shinde

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photograph shared as showing Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray with Eknath Shinde. FACTLY’s review identifies the person with Thackeray as Anand Dighe, a Shiv Sena leader who reportedly mentored Shinde—not Shinde himself. The review states: “This is an old picture of Bal Thackeray applying tilak to Anand Dighe.” It therefore concludes that the image does not support the identification made in the post. The review describes its image check: a reverse image search found the same photograph on Twitter. It says the official Shiv Sena account posted it on 26 August 2021, describing it as a tribute to Anand Dighe. The account’s post, as quoted in the review, was “posted in the memory of ‘Anand Dighe’”; the review adds that the tweet “does not mention anything about Eknath Shinde.” FACTLY also says that news reports identify the photograph as Thackeray applying tilak to Dighe. The distinction matters because Dighe’s reported role as Shinde’s mentor could make the image’s subjects easy to conflate, but the review identifies Dighe—not Shinde—as the person pictured. Its stated verdict is FALSE.

dpaPolitics & government

Deze cover is echt en Money noemde Zelensky 'de koning van westerse corruptie'

Publisher’s rating: Deze cover is gefotoshopt. Het origineel komt uit 2016 en laat de komiek John Oliver zien op de rug van het paard. Er is ook nergens te vinden dat het magazine Zelensky ooit de 'koning van westerse corruptie' noemde.

The claim concerns a specific purported Money magazine cover showing Volodymyr Zelensky on a horse made of dollars, alongside text calling him “the king of Western corruption.” The investigation says the circulated cover is not an authentic version of the magazine’s cover. It reports that the image does not appear in that form on Money’s website and that the image was altered from a December 2016 cover. (S1: “De voorpagina is niet in deze vorm te vinden op de website van het tijdschrift Money. De pagina is dan ook niet echt, maar een gefotoshopte versie van de cover van de decembereditie uit 2016.”) To identify the image’s source, the review describes searching Google for “Money Magazine Champion of the year.” That search led to an Amazon listing for the original, which shows British comedian John Oliver on the horse. The review also notes that the saddlecloth with the U.S. flag on the circulated image was added through editing. Money had published a cropped version of Oliver’s image in a November 2016 article. (S1: “Door bij Google te zoeken op ‘Money Magazine Champion of the year’ komt een pagina van webwinkel Amazon naar boven bij Google Afbeeldingen. Hier is het origineel te koop, met op het paard de Britse komiek John Oliver.”; “Het zadeldek met de Amerikaanse vlag, waar Zelensky op zit, blijkt ook gefotoshopt. Die zit niet in het origineel.”) The review separately checked whether Money had called Zelensky the quoted name. It reports that searches for his name, including different spellings, returned no results on the magazine’s website. It adds that Money’s coverage related to the war in Ukraine focused mainly on the stock market and rising gasoline prices. These findings do not support attributing the phrase or the altered cover to Money. (S1: “Het financiële tijdschrift benoemde Zelensky ook nergens tot ‘koning van de westerse corruptie’. Sterker nog, zijn naam levert op de website van het tijdschrift in diverse spelwijzen geen zoekresultaten op.”)

FACTLYPolitics & government

Recent video of Nitish Kumar calling BJP a ‘Badka Jhootha Party’

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a video presented on social media as recent footage of Nitish Kumar, then Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader, calling the BJP a “Badka Jhootha Party.” The review’s central finding is that the footage was old: Kumar made the remark in 2015, before JD(U) and BJP formed their alliance government in Bihar. He was responding to Narendra Modi’s description of JD(U) as a “Janata Ka Dhaman aur Uthpadan” party at a rally. To check the clip’s provenance, the review says it used reverse image search on screenshots from the video. That search led to an NDTV article about Kumar’s press conference after Modi’s rally on 9 August 2015. The review reports that NDTV described Kumar as using the “Badka Jhootha Party” phrase in response to Modi’s remark. It also says several news agencies reported on the press conference in August 2015. The misleading element was the video’s presentation as recent, not whether Kumar had made the quoted remark: the review identifies the footage as showing his 2015 comments. It further places those comments before the alliance government formed in July 2017, when Kumar took the oath as chief minister again on 27 July with BJP support. The review distinguishes this 2015 phrase from a separate 2014 occasion on which Kumar called BJP “Brasht Jhoothi Party.”

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: mamta banerjee not learning to ride a scooter on the road

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a social-media video presented as Mamata Banerjee learning to ride a scooter on a road surrounded by supporters and police. It says that the accompanying post described her as practising, but concludes that the clip showed a different event: Banerjee riding in a procession, not learning to ride. The review identifies the procession as a February 2021 protest in Kolkata against rising petrol and diesel prices. To investigate, the publisher searched for reports of Banerjee taking part in a two-wheeler procession and converted the viral clip into still images for reverse-image searches. It reports finding a Facebook livestream posted by Banerjee on February 25, 2021, describing a protest against fuel-price increases. The review says the motorcycle and nearby individuals in that livestream matched those in the examined clip, and concludes that the protest footage was recirculated with a misleading description that she was learning to ride.