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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.

12,752 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: old video being shared now that American's opposes modi visit

Publisher’s rating: PARTLY FALSE

The claim concerned a video presented on social media as showing Americans protesting against Modi’s recent U.S. visit. Fact Crescendo says it examined the video after seeing it shared as though the protest had just happened. Its conclusion is that the footage was old, not evidence of a newly occurring protest during the visit described in the posts. The review traces the same video to 2019. It says that year Modi also visited the United States, and that Indian expatriates and other organizations protested in several locations over his decisions on Kashmir. The specific footage under examination, the review reports, was recorded during a protest on East 47th Street in New York City on September 27, 2019. Thus, the misleading part was presenting earlier footage as current; the review does not say the footage showed no protest. The excerpt says the publisher linked a 2019 Facebook post using the same video and two news links about the protest. It does not provide those links’ contents or describe a frame-by-frame or other technical verification method, so the provenance and event details here are the review’s reported findings rather than independently demonstrated details in the supplied excerpt.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

FACT CHECK: රණවිරුවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අනුර කුමාරගෙන් ආන්දෝලනාත්මක ප්‍රකාශයක්?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a social-media post attributing a disparaging statement about soldiers and “war heroes” to JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The post said there was no such group as war heroes, described injuries as an ordinary part of military work, and opposed providing lifetime pay or supporting protests. The review says similar posts had circulated for months and had also appeared during the 2019 presidential-election period. It investigated whether Dissanayake had made the quoted remarks, rather than assessing the general merits of military benefits or protests. (S1: “ජවිපෙ නායක අනුරකුමාර දිසානායක මහතා රණවිරුවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුකළ ප්‍රකාශයක් ලෙස සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ හුවමාරු වූ මෙවැනි සටහනක්”; “රණවිරුවො කියල කට්ටියක් නෑ.හමුදාව ඉන්නෙ යුද්දෙට .ඒක එයාලගෙ වෘතිය.”) The review describes several checks. It looked for reports in mainstream media, asked the JVP’s media division, and examined the National People’s Power policy statement from the period when the posts were said to have circulated. It reports that it found no mainstream-media account of Dissanayake making the statement, either recently or in connection with the 2019 soldiers’ protest, and says the party media division denied that he had said it. The policy review found provisions concerning people affected by the war and returning land and housing to their original owners, but no statement expressing the claim’s alleged view. (S1: “අප මුලින්ම විමසා බැලුවේ ප්‍රධාන ධාරාවේ මාධ්‍ය හරහා ජවිපෙ නායක අනුරකුමාර දිසානායක විසින් මෙවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් සිදු කර ඇද්දැයි වාර්තා කර ඇතිද යන කාරණයයි.”; “ජවිපෙ මාධ්‍ය අංශයෙන්ද මේ පිලිබඳ විමසා බැලූ අතර ඔවුන්ද පැවසුවේ ජවිපෙ නායකයා විසින් මෙවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් කිසි ලෙසක සිදු කර නොමැති බව සහ පැතිර යන සමාජ ජාල සටහන් අසත්‍ය බවයි.”; “ඉහත ආකාරයේ අදහසක් ලබාදෙන ප්‍රකාශයක් එහි ද තිබු බවක් අපට දැක ගන්නට ලැබුණේ නැහැ.”) As additional context, the review points to two examples it considered relevant to the party’s record: it says JVP parliamentarian Nihal Galappaththi spoke in Parliament in July 2019 against ending pensions for Civil Security Department members, and that the JVP supported former army commander Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election after the war. Its conclusion is that it found no evidence that Dissanayake made the attributed remarks recently or during the 2019 protests, and characterizes the circulating posts as misleading. These are findings reported by the review; the supplied excerpt does not include the underlying media reports, parliamentary record, or policy document for independent inspection. (S1: “සිවිල් ආරක්ෂක ‌සේවයේ සේවය කළ සෙබළුන්ගේ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප අහිමි කිරීම නවත්වන ලෙස ජවිපෙ එවකට පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නිහාල් ගලප්පත්ති මහතා 2019 වසරේ ජුලි මස පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී අදහස් දැක්වූ අයුරු”; “අප විසින් සිදු කරන ලද ගවේෂණයේදී තහවුරු වූයේ ජවිපෙ නායක අනුරකුමාර දිසානායක විසින් සමාජ ජාලාවල සදහන් ආකාරයේ “රණවිරුවන් කියල කට්ටියක් නෑ..” , යනාදී වශෙයන් ප්‍රකාශයක් හමුදාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෑතක දී හෝ රණවිරු උද්ඝෝෂණ පැවති 2019 වසරේ දී හෝ සිදුකළ බවට සඳහනක් නොවන බවයි.”)

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: fake news being shared that MK Stalin appreciated those who opposing vanniyar reservation

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photo said to show M.K. Stalin praising people who had filed, or planned to file, a case against the Vanniyar internal reservation. The review notes that the social-media post described the legal action inconsistently, and it checked whether the image itself came from the period when the reservation was introduced. Using a reverse-image search, the investigators found the photo on a Facebook page in 2019, before the reservation was provided in February 2021. They therefore concluded that the image could not show Stalin praising people for opposing that later measure. The review also examined the post’s claim that Rajeshwaran, identified as a general secretary of the group involved in the case, was Durga Stalin’s brother. It says reports identified her brother as Dr. Rajamoorthy, and that the publisher contacted an aide to Udhayanidhi Stalin, who said Durga Stalin had only one brother and that his name was Rajamoorthy. The review further reports that the Tamil Nadu government had said it would appeal a Madras High Court Madurai Bench ruling, and that Stalin had previously pledged to provide the internal reservation. Based on the image’s earlier provenance and its checks of the family and political claims, the review found the circulated photo and accompanying claim false.

המשרוקית של גלובסPolitics & government

אם הממשלה נופלת יאיר לפיד יחליף את נפתלי בנט בראשות הממשלה

Publisher’s rating: נכון ברובו

The claim arose in an October 30, 2021 television discussion. Emili Moati said that if the government fell, Yair Lapid would immediately become prime minister until the next election. The investigation compared that broad statement with the arrangements in the Basic Law: The Government and the coalition agreements for the Bennett–Lapid rotation government. The key distinction is how the government ends. A successful no-confidence vote requires the Knesset to approve a specified alternative government with at least 61 votes. That would create a replacement government, not an election-period caretaker government, and the law bars both Bennett and Lapid from heading that alternative. So the outcome Moati described does not follow from a no-confidence vote. The review found that Lapid would become prime minister if the Knesset dispersed because the budget was not passed by the statutory deadline: the law provides for the rotation on that occasion. Early dissolution by a vote of the Knesset could also trigger the rotation, but only if at least two MKs from Bennett’s bloc supported it. The investigation also notes that Lapid would replace Bennett in certain cases where Bennett’s term ended, such as resignation or incapacity, but the government would not thereby fall or become a caretaker government. Thus, the statement is accurate for some ways the government could end or cease to be led by Bennett, but not for the no-confidence scenario raised in the interview. It also leaves out the conditions attached to early dissolution. The review’s conclusion is therefore qualified rather than an endorsement of the claim as an unconditional rule.

המשרוקית של גלובסPolitics & government

"אותן חברות כנסת ...שבאו ואמרו אנחנו רוצות לדאוג לגיל פרישה... הביאו (את החוק) ככתבו וכלשונו ומנסות להעביר אותו, פתאום קופצים ישר לגיל 65..."

Publisher’s rating: לא נכון ברובו

The review examined remarks by Shas MK Yinon Azoulay on Army Radio about coalition MKs Michal Rozin and Naama Lazimi and the proposed increase in women’s retirement age. Azoulay said they had brought the measure forward “as written” and that it suddenly jumped straight to age 65; he also argued that women losing eligibility for old-age benefits would retain only four discounts. The review checked the proposal and its provisions, including government bill materials and the version submitted for discussion in the Knesset Finance Committee. It also reported that the proposal was due to take effect on January 1, 2022, if passed.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: fake news being shared that Modi went to Vatican in a taxi

Publisher’s rating: ALTERED

The review examines a social-media post portraying Pope Francis as having welcomed Narendra Modi in a rental car during Modi’s Vatican visit. The claim implied that the Pope had brought Modi in a hired vehicle and thereby insulted him. The review says it found the post being shared as true on social platforms after a reader submitted it for checking. The review places the visit in the context of Modi’s trip to Italy for the G20 summit, followed by travel to the Vatican, where he met Pope Francis. It reports that the viral picture was not genuine: the image of the car Modi travelled in had been edited to make it look like a rental car. As support, the review points readers to photographs published by ANI, which it describes as the genuine images. Thus, the review’s evidence addresses the specific image-based allegation: it distinguishes the circulated, altered depiction from the genuine photographs it attributes to ANI. The excerpt does not provide the ANI images themselves or describe a technical image-analysis procedure, so it supports the review’s stated conclusion but does not allow independent inspection of those images here.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

FACT CHECK: ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ ජනපතිට පුද්ගලයෙකු වන්දනා කරන ඡායාරූපයක්?

Publisher’s rating: Altered

The review examined a social-media image that appeared to show a person at a fuel station joining their hands toward a display board bearing Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s photograph. It concluded that this was not a photograph taken in Sri Lanka with Rajapaksa on the board: the underlying image came from India, where the board showed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The version featuring Rajapaksa was edited and circulated in a satirical, misleading way. To investigate, the publisher says it closely inspected the image and noticed another photograph behind the apparent Rajapaksa portrait on the display. It then used reverse-image search. The review reports that this search found the image circulating on Indian social media from 2019 onward, during Indian fuel-price increases, and that the original versions showed Modi. The visual comparison and image-search findings therefore connect the shared image to an earlier Indian image, rather than merely suggesting that the scene looked unfamiliar. The review also says the fuel station did not resemble one in Sri Lanka. Its Indian team thought the location might be Martin Motors in New Delhi, but the article presents that as a possibility, not a confirmed identification. It suggests the Rajapaksa edit may have followed a fuel-price increase in Sri Lanka, but likewise frames that explanation as an inference. The decisive finding is the altered display board: the person and fuel-station scene originated in India, while the Sri Lankan president’s image was substituted for Modi’s.