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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

Video shows a protestor giving a warning to the authorities in the recent Agnipath protests

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show a protester warning authorities during the recent Agnipath protests. The review describes the footage as two clips: in the first, a protester says, “It is just a trailer. The full film is yet to come”; in the second, police carry someone away. The investigation concluded that the video was old footage from Tripura, rather than footage of the Agnipath protests. To trace the first clip, the reviewers ran screenshots through Google Reverse Image Search and found similar videos posted in August 2021. They report that the longer version of the clip had been uploaded to the TRIPURAINFOWAY TIWN YouTube channel that month. Its description says that Madhyamik candidates who had not passed their board exams gheraoed Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath’s residence, alleging a scam and partiality toward students. The review also notes that the channel’s logo appears in the video being shared. For the second clip, the review says a similar video was uploaded to the same channel in August 2021. It identifies the person in that footage as Samrat Roy, president of NSUI Tripura, and says Roy posted a live video from the same place on 3 August 2021. Together, the reported earlier uploads and the Tripura-specific descriptions place the footage in a different setting and time from the claimed Agnipath protests.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video of protester avoiding media question during Agnipath protests in Bihar

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated as showing a protester during Bihar’s demonstrations against the Agnipath scheme. In the footage, a man demands that the government withdraw legislation, identifies himself as a supporter of Lalu, and avoids questions about the protest’s cause. FACTLY’s review says Bihar did experience violent protests after the scheme was announced, but concludes that this particular video was not from those demonstrations. To investigate the video’s history, the review says it ran a reverse image search using screenshots from the circulating footage. That search led to a YouTube upload with similar visuals, posted on 28 January 2022; the video’s title associated the visuals with the RRB-NTPC exam. The review then compared that earlier upload date with the scheme’s announcement on 14 June 2022. The upload therefore predates the event to which the video was being linked. The review also reports finding news coverage of student protests in Bihar in January 2022 over alleged discrepancies in the RRB NTPC 2021 exam. On that basis, it says the footage was most likely related to those earlier protests, while qualifying that attribution as probable rather than certain. Its conclusion is that an older protest video was misleadingly presented as footage of the later Agnipath protests.

Telugupost FactcheckPolitics & government

మంత్రి' అనే పదాని ఆదిత్య థాకరే, తన ట్విట్టర్ బయో నుంచి తొలగించారు

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines viral screenshots and social-media posts claiming that Aditya Thackeray had changed his Twitter bio by removing the word “Minister,” amid the political crisis involving his father, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. It says that media and social-media accounts circulated the claim, but the excerpt does not describe a comparison of Twitter screenshots or another direct check of the Twitter bio’s history. The specific evidence reported is from Thackeray’s other social-media profiles. The article says his Twitter bio referred to his Instagram handle, and that his Instagram bio still described him as Maharashtra’s tourism, environment and protocol minister. It also says that “Minister” did not appear on his Facebook account. On that basis, the review rejects the claim. The excerpt supports the reported Instagram and Facebook details, but does not provide the underlying screenshots or explain how those details establish what appeared in the Twitter bio itself.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Bundesverteidigungsministerin Lambrecht hat gesagt, dass Gendersoldatinnen und Soldaten wegen fehlender Toiletten nicht einsatzbereit sind.

Publisher’s rating: Das Zitat ist gefälscht. Eine Sprecherin des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums teilte der Deutschen Presse-Agentur mit, es handele sich «selbstverständlich um eine (offensichtliche) Falschmeldung». Unklar ist, was die Erfinder des gefälschten Zitats überhaupt mit «Gender-Soldatinnen/-soldaten» meinen.

The claim attributes to Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht a statement questioning the deployment readiness of “Gender-Soldatinnen/-soldaten” because of gender-appropriate toilets. The DPA review says the quote was being attributed to her without a cited source or context, and reports that a ministry spokesperson rejected it as false. The review also notes that the wording itself does not clearly identify whom it is meant to describe. (S1: “Der Verteidigungsministerin wird ein Zitat untergeschoben, in dem an der Einsatzbereitschaft sogenannter «Gender-Soldatinnen/-soldaten» gezweifelt wird.”; “Es ist keine Quelle angegeben, in welchem Kontext Lambrecht das gesagt haben soll”; “Eine Sprecherin des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums teilte der Deutschen Presse-Agentur mit, es handele sich «selbstverständlich um eine (offensichtliche) Falschmeldung».”) The review examined whether the alleged statement had a traceable public record. It says that searches for Lambrecht’s name alongside “Gender” or “Transgender” yielded no matching results apart from material about the fabricated quote, and observes that a statement of this kind would have generated reporting, which the authors did not find. These are the review’s stated checks; the excerpt does not provide a search log or identify the post that circulated the allegation. (S1: “Eine Google-Suche mit dem Namen der Bundesverteidigungsministerin und den Begriffen «Gender» oder «Transgender» führt zu keinerlei entsprechenden Ergebnissen - außer welchen, die sich ebenfalls mit dem gefälschten Zitat befassen.”; “auch hätte ein solches Zitat Berichterstattung zur Folge gehabt, die es dazu aber eben nicht gibt.”) The toilet-related subject appears in the review as a real Bundeswehr policy topic, but the review distinguishes that background from the alleged comment about readiness. It says the military had a guide on dealing with transgender people for more than three years, including a section on sanitary facilities, and found no indication in that guide that this affected their deployment readiness. (S1: “Bereits seit mehr als drei Jahren gibt es sogar einen offiziellen «Leitfaden zum Umgang mit transgeschlechtlichen Menschen» bei der Bundeswehr.”; “Darin gibt es einen Unterpunkt «Sanitäre Anlagen»”; “Hinweise darauf, dass es deshalb Einschränkungen bei der Einsatzbereitschaft von transgeschlechtlichen Menschen bei der Bundeswehr gibt, finden sich an keiner Stelle.”)

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

ब्रेकिंग न्यूज़ ,देश की पूर्व राष्ट्रपति श्रीमती प्रतिभा पाटिल ने पीएम मोदी को लेकर बड़ा बयान दिया है। प्रतिभा पाटिल ने कहा कि भले ही मैं कांग्रेस पार्टी से हूं, लेकिन मैं आज भारत देश की समाज सेविका के रूप में भारतीय जनता को यह कहना चाहती हूं कि नरेंद्र मोदी ही ऐसे एक इंसान हैं जो भारत देश को एक अच्छा राष्ट्र बना सकते हैं, क्योंकि उनमे वो निर्णय लेने कि क्षमता है जो भारत देश के देशवासियों को नई दिशा प्रदान कर सकते हैं. मोदी जी ने भारत देश को नई दिशा प्रदान की है, मैने भी देश के लिए एक राष्ट्रपति के रूप में सेवा की है, मगर कभी भी पीएम मोदी जैसा नेता नहीं देखा.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

dpaPolitics & government

Deze foto toont aan dat Zelensky nooit op straat is geweest en altijd een greenscreen heeft gebruikt.

Publisher’s rating: Deze bewering is onjuist. Er is genoeg bewegend beeldmateriaal te vinden, waarin Zelensky in de open lucht in Oekraïne te zien is. Deze specifieke foto van Zelensky omgeven door green screens is gemaakt tijdens de opname van een toespraak, die afgelopen juni tijdens verschillende tech-conferenties in Europa werd getoond.

The claim attached to the photo is that Zelensky “never” goes out and presents himself to the public only using green screens. The article identifies this as a recurring theory and examines a newly circulating image offered as proof. It reports that the image shows Zelensky amid green screens, but was taken while recording a speech intended for holographic presentation—not as evidence that he never appears outdoors. To establish the photo’s provenance, the article says it also appears on the Facebook page of Evercoast, a company working with 3D technology. The company’s post includes other photographs, including a selfie of Zelensky with its CEO, Ben Nunez. According to the article, the Evercoast team travelled to Kyiv to record the speech. It was presented as a hologram in June at technology conferences in London, Amsterdam, Paris and Stockholm. The article points to a video recorded at the Founders Forum in London on June 16, showing Zelensky’s full speech and audience reactions, and says that footage from Paris offers another view of the process. It reports that these moving images are identical to the 3D recording and correspond with the image shared on social media. Separately, it points to videos of Zelensky visiting the Kharkiv frontline and walking through the devastated town of Bucha as examples of him outdoors in Ukraine. The green-screen photo therefore documents a production technique for one speech; it does not establish the sweeping claim made about his public appearances.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Additional Secretary to GoI, letter asking to integrate the jawans/airmen/sailors enrolled after 2019 into the Agnipath scheme

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines a social-media post sharing a purported letter in the name of the Additional Secretary to the Government of India. The letter allegedly asked the chief of tri-services to bring into the Agnipath scheme personnel enrolled after 1 January 2019 who had not been promoted to the substantive rank of Naik or equivalent, and set out regulations for them. The review describes this as an allegation about already-enrolled personnel, not simply the scheme’s future recruitment. [S1] The article says the scheme was for future recruitment and that the first recruitment notification had been released; it also says officials did not mention the alleged integration when announcing the scheme. [S1] To assess the claim, the review reports that it found no reports saying the specified recruits would be integrated, and that officials had not announced such a measure. It then cites a clarification from the Press Information Bureau (PIB), which said the Defence Ministry had not issued the circulating letter. [S1] The PIB statement is the review’s direct evidence about the letter’s authenticity; the absence of other reporting and of an announcement is supporting context, rather than independent proof about who created it. [S1] On that basis, the review concludes that the letter was not issued by the Defence Ministry and that the claim it made was unsupported. The evidence presented therefore addresses the specific purported letter and the proposed treatment of recruits enrolled after 2019, rather than establishing that those personnel were brought under Agnipath. [S1]