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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.

12,751 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Pakistan a land just used as a cemetery for Pakistanis

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim is that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently described Pakistan as land used only as a cemetery for Pakistanis. FACTLY says it searched for an on-record or official statement and found none. It also checked for Pakistani news coverage that would be expected if the alleged remark had been made, but reported finding no news report about it. The review therefore finds no evidence that Putin made the quoted statement. The investigation places the Pakistan version in a longer chain of social-media claims. It says a similar quote about Africa was attributed to Putin in 2018. The text of that version was, “Africa is just a cemetery of Africans”; the Ghanaian Ministry of Information reportedly clarified that the Facebook page circulating it, named “Al Jazeera West Africa,” was fake. FACTLY says African fact-checking websites also reported on that clarification. That earlier episode is relevant as provenance for a recurring attribution, not as proof by itself that the Pakistan wording is false. The review’s direct checks of the Pakistan allegation are its reported searches for an official or on-record Putin statement and for Pakistani news reports. The excerpt does not identify particular search tools or provide a complete list of outlets searched, so those details cannot be assessed here.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

අගමැතිකම බාරගන්න අනුර සූදානම් !! ඒ සඳහා ඔහුට ආරාධනා ලැබෙනවාද?

Publisher’s rating: False

The post claimed that JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was ready to accept the prime minister’s position and had received an invitation to do so. The review examined both parts of that allegation in the setting of Sri Lanka’s political crisis. It reports that its search found no mainstream-media coverage of such a statement or invitation, and that it could not find the alleged post on the Swarnavahini Live at 8 social-media pages. The absence of those items is described as a result of the review’s checks, rather than proof from a cited record of every possible communication. [S1: “අප මුලින්ම විමසා බැලුවේ ජවිපෙ නායකයා මේ ආකාර ප්‍රකාශ සිදු කර ඇද්ද, යන්න සහ ඔහුට අගමැතිකම භාර ගැනීමට ආරාධනා කර ඇත්ද යන්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රධාන ධාරාවේ මාධ්‍ය වල කරුණු වාර්තා කර තිබෙනවාද යන කරුණ කෙරෙහියි.එවැනි පුවත් නොමැති බව අපට පෙනී ගියා. ස්වර්ණවාහිනී Live at 8 සමාජ ජාලා පිටුවලද මෙවැනි පෝස්ටුවක් දක්නට නොමැති බව අප කළ ගවේෂණයේදී පෙනී ගියා.”] The review also distinguishes the allegation from a separate, reported request by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for opposition leaders to take ministerial posts and help address the crisis. It says Dissanayake rejected that proposal at a media conference, arguing that people were calling for the president’s resignation rather than a shared government. This reported exchange concerns ministerial positions and cooperation, not an invitation to Dissanayake to become prime minister. [S1: “ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ විසින් මෑතකදී විපක්ෂයේ නායකයන්ටද ඇමති තනතුරු බාරගෙන රටේ පවතින අර්බුදකාරී තත්ත්වය මැඩලීම සඳහා සහාය ලබාදෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා තිබුණා. කෙසේ වෙතත් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දින කීපයකට පෙර පැවති මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවකදී අදහස් දක්වන අනුර කුමාර මන්ත්‍රීවරයා විසින් එම යෝජනාව සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් පවසා තිබුණේ මේ මොහොතේ ජනතාව ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ විපක්ෂයත් සමග හවුලේ ආණ්ඩු කිරීම නොව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ඉල්ලා අස්වීම බවයි.”] As an additional check, the review says it contacted the JVP media division. According to the article, the division denied both that Dissanayake had said they were ready to take over the government if invited and that he had received an invitation to accept the premiership. The review concludes that neither readiness to take over nor an invitation was established. [S1: “මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අප ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ මාධ්‍ය අංශයෙන්ද කරුණු විමසා බැලුවා.ඔවුන්ද පැවසුවේ අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මන්ත්‍රීවරයා විසින් ආරාධනා කරණවා නම් ආණ්ඩුව බාර ගන්න අපි සූදානම් වැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු නොකළ බව සහ ඔහුට අගමැතිකම බාර ගැනීම සඳහා ආරාධනයක්ද නොලැබුණු බවයි.”]

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

ह्यात यूजर्स दावा करत आहेत कि पूर्व कॅबिनेट मंत्री श्रीकांत शर्मा ह्यांना भारतीय जनता पार्टी उत्तर प्रदेश चा अध्यक्ष बनवले गेले आहे. सोशल मीडिया वर काही यूजर्स श्रीकांत शर्मा ह्यांचे अभिनंदन करत आहे.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media post saying former cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma had been appointed president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh. The post was shared by the Facebook page “अपना जिला कुशीनगर”; the review says users were also congratulating Sharma. The investigation found that he had not been made state party president at the time the review was written.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Footage of a brawl from the Pakistan National Assembly

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns footage presented as showing a brawl in Pakistan’s National Assembly. FACTLY’s review identifies the scene as a different legislature: the Sindh provincial assembly. It says the incident occurred in March 2021, before Pakistan’s Senate elections, and involved members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The review describes three dissident PTI leaders being attacked by PTI members as they entered the assembly, with PPP members joining later. To check the video’s provenance, the review notes a Kanak News logo in the footage and says a reverse image search of screenshots, using relevant keywords, found a video with similar visuals on Kanak News’s official YouTube channel. FACTLY reports that the video was uploaded on 4 March 2021 and described a brawl among leaders in the Sindh Assembly. The review also says Pakistani news outlets reported the same incident in the provincial assembly ahead of the Senate elections. The key distinction is therefore the venue: the footage does show a political brawl in Pakistan, but the review traces it to the Sindh provincial assembly, not the National Assembly. The supplied excerpt also situates the claim amid a later political crisis, mentioning Imran Khan’s blocking of a no-confidence motion and dissolution of the national assembly; that context does not change the review’s identification of the video.

המשרוקית של גלובסPolitics & government

נתניהו הקים 11 תחנות משטרה ביישובים ערביים, אחרי שכשהוא נהיה רה"מ ב-2009 הייתה רק אחת

Publisher’s rating: חצי נכון

The review examined two parts of Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in a March 2022 television interview: that he opened 11 police stations in Arab communities, and that only one existed when he returned as prime minister in 2009. Its account of the interview identifies the single station he named as Nazareth. The investigation compared these claims with information it requested from the police and with other records and reporting described in the article. For the period under Netanyahu, the police supplied the review with a list of nine stations opened in Arab communities after the 2015 Government Decision 922, which called for expanding police activity and establishing stations and other police units in the plan’s communities. The review also identified at least eight police points established during the period. These included five points the police associated with the plan, as well as points discussed elsewhere in the article. Thus, the investigation found substantial support for Netanyahu’s claim about new police facilities, while distinguishing stations from police points. The claim that only one station existed in 2009 did not hold up. Police information cited by the review records stations already operating in Shfar’am, Rahat, Tayibe, Umm al-Fahm and the Iron (Wadi Ara) area, in addition to Nazareth; it also identifies an earlier police point in Baqa al-Gharbiyye. The review’s conclusion was that six stations and one police point were operating in Arab communities when Netanyahu took office in 2009—not just the Nazareth station he mentioned. The two parts of the statement therefore had different evidentiary support.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Photo collage comparing an older and younger Mamata Banerje

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post presented two photographs as a comparison of an older and younger Mamata Banerjee. FACTLY’s review found that the collage combines images with different histories: the left-hand image is based on a photograph from the early 1970s, but the version used in the viral post had been altered. The review says the original and viral versions are similar, while the viral image has added brightness and lipstick. The right-hand image was not a second portrait from the same comparison. FACTLY identifies it as a photograph from a 2015 Rathyatra in Kolkata, showing Banerjee pulling the Lord Jagannath chariot alongside actor Koel Mallick. Thus, while the collage does pair images of Banerjee at different points in time, its left image was modified, and the right image came from a specific later event. FACTLY reports using a reverse image search on the left image to find a comparable photograph in an article. It notes that the article’s version was not identical to the viral one, and describes it as lacking the viral image’s brightness and lipstick. The review’s findings therefore turn on both the alteration to the older image and the separate provenance of the Rathyatra photograph.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

මිරිහාන උද්ඝෝෂණයේ යෙදුනු ජනතාව, චතුර සේනාරත්නව එතනින් එලවා දැමුවාද ? (VIDEO)

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns a video said to show Chathura Senaratne being chased away by people at the Mirihana protest. The review says it investigated whether he had been forced out of a protest held near the president’s residence, and found that the circulating footage came from an earlier incident, not the recent demonstrations: “අදාළ වීඩියෝව පැරණි සිදුවීමකට සම්බන්ධ වීඩියෝවක් වන බවයි.” To identify the footage, the review reports using reverse-image searches on frames from the social-media video. It says that search linked the clip to an incident at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation on 26 October 2018. It also points to a Hiru News Facebook video posted the next day, describing its subject as “රූපවාහිනියට යන්න ගිය ගිය මන්ත්‍රී චතුර සේනාරත්න හූ හඬ මැද්දේ පසු බසියි”. The review explains that Senaratne, Mangala Samaraweera and Rajitha Senaratne had tried to enter the Rupavahini premises to express their opposition to the change of government, but left after people there objected. The review further reports that Senaratne told the fact-checkers he had not attended the protests in the preceding days. Its conclusion is that the video was misleadingly presented as a recent protest incident: it showed a confrontation at the Rupavahini premises in 2018, rather than Senaratne being chased away from the Mirihana protest.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Photo of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post presented a photo as an image of Aam Aadmi Party member and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. FACTLY’s review identifies the photo’s setting as Lakme Fashion Week 2022, where Chadha participated on behalf of his maternal uncle, a fashion designer. The issue the review investigates is not whether the person pictured was Chadha, but whether the widely shared version of his photo had been altered. [S1: “The photo of Aam Aadmi Party member and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha is from the Lakme Fashion Week 2022; he participated for his maternal uncle who is a fashion designer.”] The review describes two checks: a reverse-image search located a similar photo in a tweet, and the investigators compared that image with the viral version. The tweet identified Chadha’s participation in Lakme Fashion Week; the review also says his Instagram page stated that he dressed for his maternal uncle, who is a fashion designer. In the comparison, the viral image had been edited and make-up added. Thus, the photo was based on an image of Chadha at the event, but the circulated version was not an unaltered representation. [S1: “When reverse image search is done on the photo, a similar photo of Raghav Chadha was found in a tweet.”] [S1: “When the viral photo is compared with the photo found in the tweet, the viral photo has been edited and make-up was added to it.”]