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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

Purported letter of Amit Shah directing Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to provide ‘Z’ category security to Nupur Sharma

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an image circulating on social media that purported to be a letter from Home Minister Amit Shah to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, directing him to provide Nupur Sharma with ‘Z’ category security. The review says the letter portrayed Sharma as an advocate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak ideology and connected that purported support to the goal of a Hindu Rashtra. It places the post amid controversy over Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammed and the BJP’s description of her as a fringe element. The investigation reports checking the Ministry of Home Affairs website and Amit Shah’s official social media accounts, where it found no such letter. It also cites a clarification from the Press Information Bureau: the agency said the circulating letter was not issued by the Home Minister to Dhami. These checks address the document’s central assertion—whether the named officials were connected by the claimed official letter—rather than merely assessing the language or appearance of the image. The review adds that Delhi Police granted Sharma police security on 7 June 2022, but says it found no reporting that she received ‘Z’ category security following an Amit Shah recommendation. That reported police protection is distinct from the specific security category and letter asserted in the post. Taken together, the review’s reported document searches, the PIB clarification, and the distinction between police protection and the claimed Z-category recommendation support its conclusion that the purported letter was not genuine.

dpaPolitics & government

WEF-Gründer Klaus Schwab ist der Sohn des Hitlervertrauten Eugen Schwab. Dieser ist auf dem Bild unten rechts zu sehen.

Publisher’s rating: Das Foto zeigt nicht Eugen Schwab. Auf dem rechten Bild ist höchstwahrscheinlich der deutsche Generalmajor Walter Dybilasz zu sehen. Es lassen sich keine Belege dafür finden, dass Schwab ein Vertrauter Hitlers war.

The claim paired a photograph of Klaus Schwab with a second image said to show his father, Eugen Schwab, in Nazi uniform, and described Eugen as a Hitler confidant. The dpa review investigated both the identification of the man in the right-hand image and the allegation about Eugen Schwab’s role. It concluded that the pictured man was not Eugen and found no evidence that Eugen was Hitler’s confidant. The review identified the man in the image as probably German Major General Walter Dybilasz. For the image identification, the review says a reverse-image search led to World War II forums and blogs whose entries consistently identified the man as Dybilasz. It also notes that another blog entry showed a second image from the same situation, while another included a passport photograph. These are the identification leads the review describes; the excerpt does not report an independent identification from an official military record. The review compared the disputed image with a photograph of Eugen Schwab. It says a spokesperson for Klaus Schwab confirmed the authenticity of the comparison photograph, which appeared to come from a temporary Brazilian visa issued to Eugen in 1957. On the separate claim about Eugen’s Nazi connections, the review says his views cannot be fully established, but it found no evidence that he held high office or was Hitler’s confidant. It also reports that Eugen worked for the Ravensburg branch of Swiss machinery manufacturer Escher Wyss AG.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video showing Yogi Adityanath’s support to Nupur Sharma

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined two videos shared as showing Yogi Adityanath supporting Nupur Sharma. Its investigation found that each clip came from an earlier speech, rather than from the recent controversy involving Sharma. The clips therefore did not establish the support attributed to him in the posts. For the first video, FACTLY reports using reverse image searches on screenshots to find a YouTube video with similar visuals. The viral clip was cut from that video at 26:06. The YouTube upload dated 15 May 2015 identifies the speech as one delivered at a Vishwa Hindu Maha Sangh event at Shri Dudheshwarnath Mandir in Ghaziabad on 10 May 2015. FACTLY also notes that Adityanath was not Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister in 2015. For the second video, FACTLY reports finding a matching YouTube video on the BJP’s official channel, uploaded on 14 August 2014. It identifies the source as Adityanath’s Lok Sabha speech on 13 August 2014 about mechanisms for dealing with communal violence. The review says the viral version was edited from different moments in that same session. These dates and source histories place both clips years before the Nupur Sharma incident; the review concludes that old footage was being presented as support for her.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Robert Habeck würde eher Menschen verhungern lassen, als Sanktionen gegen Russland aufzuheben.

Publisher’s rating: In den Videos sind die Aussagen von Habeck aus dem Kontext gerissen und verdreht worden. Der Bundesminister sagte, er könne sich vorstellen, dass Russland bei einer Hungerkrise 100 000 Tote in Kauf nehmen würde, um von den kriegsbedingten Sanktionen loszukommen. Auch die Übersetzungen in den verbreiteten Videos sind irreführend und teilweise falsch.