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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

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter Anjali Birla was selected for IAS without giving the Civil Services Examination (CSE)

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter, Anjali Birla, and alleged that she became an IAS officer without sitting the Civil Services Examination (CSE), through a back-door entry using her father’s position. The review checked her participation in the 2019 examination and how she came to appear in the selection records. It reports that she was recommended from the consolidated reserve list, issued after the initial results—not selected without taking the examination. The review describes checking UPSC records: it found Birla’s name and roll number, 0851876, in the reserve-candidate list released on 4 January 2021, and her roll number in the CSE 2019 preliminary-examination result list. It also reports that she shared her admit card and Detailed Application Form with news organizations. NDTV, the review says, televised her 2019 admit card and confirmed that she had appeared for the examination. The review concludes that she took the preliminary and main examinations and appeared for all three stages. The reserve-list timing is important context: the UPSC recommended 89 candidates from that list on 4 January 2021, months after the CSE final result was declared on 4 August 2020. The review explains that reserve candidates are considered under the examination rules to fill remaining vacancies. Thus, appearing later on the reserve list does not establish that Birla bypassed the CSE; the cited examination records and documents instead support that she participated in it.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: mk stalin not assured that he will step down from the chief minister post

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a statement attributed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin: that he was prepared to leave the chief minister’s post to protect social justice. The review places the circulating claim against a dispute over the NEET medical entrance examination. It says the Tamil Nadu government passed a bill seeking exemption from NEET and sent it for the governor’s approval; Governor C.N. Ravi returned it. The state later passed the same resolution again. The review describes the alleged statement as circulating against this political backdrop. To check the attribution, Fact Crescendo reports that Sun News’s digital team said the statement was “not true” and that the claim was a rumor being shared in the outlet’s name. The review treats that response as decisive evidence that Stalin had not made the reported statement. It does not provide a recording, transcript, or further account of how Sun News verified the attribution, so the excerpt supports the review’s reported confirmation but does not detail an independent media-authentication process. The review’s conclusion addresses the specific claim about Stalin and leaving office; it is not simply a general report about NEET or the bill. Its account distinguishes the documented legislative developments from the alleged quote: the bill’s return and the state’s renewed resolution are presented as context, while the denial from Sun News’s digital team is the evidence offered about whether Stalin made the statement.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Laut Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) haben schätzungsweise 2,3 Millionen Demonstranten und über 100 000 Lastwagen an Kanadas „Freedom Convoy“-Protest teilgenommen.

Publisher’s rating: Es gibt keine Belege für die behaupteten Teilnehmerzahlen. Die Polizei schätzt die Anzahl der Demonstrierenden vor Ort deutlich niedriger ein.

The claim concerned a social-media image asserting that 2.3 million demonstrators and 100,000 to 130,000 trucks had taken part in the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. The review places the protest in late January 2022, after truck drivers began demonstrating against cross-border vaccine rules. It says the convoy reached Ottawa on the last weekend of January, where further demonstrations took place. The review reports that the image attributed the figures to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). It says neither police service had made those claims, and that both told fact-checkers at Check Your Fact that they had not provided such figures. The review does not describe an independent count of all participants or trucks. For the number of people at the demonstrations, the review cites local estimates: police estimated 8,000 participants on January 29, while the city put the number at 3,000 the following day. It says the number of trucks in Ottawa was unclear. As a scale comparison, it reports that a Canadian newspaper calculated a convoy of about 50,000 trucks would stretch roughly 450 kilometres—about the distance from Ottawa to Toronto. These figures do not substantiate the much larger numbers attributed to the police in the image.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video of Samajwadi workers chanting pro-Pakistan slogans during a rally in Bithoor, Uttar Pradesh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Samajwadi Party supporters chanting pro-Pakistan slogans at a rally in Bithoor, Uttar Pradesh. FACTLY identifies the rally as one led by Samajwadi Party Bithoor constituency leader Munindra Shukla and says the viral post attributed to the crowd the words “Cycle ka button dabana he, Pakistan Banana he.” To check the video, FACTLY says it found a clearer version posted on Shukla’s Facebook page after searching for other sources using relevant keywords. In that version, the workers’ slogans were “mohar maaro taan ke, cycle ko pehchan ke, maati chor bhagana hai”—not the pro-Pakistan wording claimed in the post. Shukla also said misleading information was circulating about his rally and appealed to people not to believe misleading social-media posts. The review reports two further checks on the allegation: Bithoor’s Assistant Returning Officer released a video clarifying that “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans were not raised at the rally, and the Kanpur district Flying Squad Team investigated the viral video and confirmed that no slogans in favour of Pakistan had been raised. FACTLY also reports that Nava Bharat Times deleted its tweet and published a clarification saying its report about the alleged slogans had turned out to be false. The clearer rally recording and these reported official and publication clarifications support the review’s conclusion that the video was misrepresented.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ලෝකයේ දූෂිතම ජනාධිපතිවරු 5 දෙනා අතරට?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigated a social-media post claiming that former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was one of the world’s five most corrupt presidents. It reports that the post had circulated on Facebook, including in 2019, and says the claim was misleading because the review found no official index or internationally reported list supporting it. The review describes checking for such an index and for international media reports, and says neither produced a relevant list: “ලෝකයේ දූෂිත ජනාධිපතිවරුන් ලෙස නම් කළ නිල දර්ශකයක් පිළිබඳ අප විමර්ශනයක් සිදු කළ අතර එවැනි දර්ශකයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් හෝ ලොව දූෂිත ජනාධිපතිවරුන් ලැයිස්තුවක් පිළිබඳ ජාත්‍යන්තර මාධ්‍ය වාර්තාවක හෝ සඳහන් වී නොතිබුණි.” As a comparison, the review refers to Panama Papers reporting by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). It names Argentina’s Mauricio Macri, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed, and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko as presidents mentioned in that material, and says Mahinda Rajapaksa was not named there. This is evidence about the contents of the cited Panama Papers material, not proof that no corruption allegations of any kind existed: “එම ලේඛනයේ හෝ මෙරට ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නම සඳහන් වී නොතිබුණි.” The article also notes that Niroopama Rajapaksa, described as a relative of the Rajapaksa family and a former deputy minister, was named in the Pandora Papers. That reference concerns a different person and document set; it does not establish that Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared in a “five most corrupt presidents” ranking. The review says it had asked Transparency International’s Sri Lanka office for information and planned to update the article if a response arrived, so the excerpt does not report an answer from that organization: “දූෂණයට එරෙහි ගෝලීය සන්ධානයක් වන Transparency International සංවිධානයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා කාර්යාලයෙන් ද තොරතුරු විමසා ඇති අතර පිළිතුරු ලැබුණු වහාම එම තොරතුරු ඇතුළත් කොට මෙම ලිපිය යාවත්කාලීන කිරීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.”

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: h raja not made this statement on aiadmk

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns two social-media news cards attributing to H. Raja a statement that the AIADMK would lose. Fact Crescendo says it examined the cards’ authenticity and reports that they were shared against the background of the BJP announcing it would leave the AIADMK alliance and contest independently in the Tamil Nadu urban local body elections. The review links to a Vikatan report for that political context, but does not say the cards’ claim came from that report. The review’s key evidence is that Thanthi TV denied the cards were genuine. Fact Crescendo says the cards used Thanthi TV’s logo and concludes they were fake news cards, supporting the conclusion that the attributed statement was not authentic. The excerpt does not describe additional verification steps or reproduce Thanthi TV’s denial, so it does not establish precisely how the denial was made or what evidence Thanthi TV provided.