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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.

12,753 published reviews in this topic

dpaPolitics & government

Armin Laschet sagt bei RTL auf die Frage "Wie werden Sie denn jetzt helfen?" - "Gar nicht"

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Armin Laschet antwortet auf die Frage mit «Ich hör' nichts».

The claim concerns a clip from an RTL live interview in which Armin Laschet was asked how he would help after flooding in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. The review identifies the clip as coming from an interview on 15 July 2021 and says it compared the short excerpt with the complete interview: “Der kurze Video-Ausschnitt stammt aus einem Live-Interview des Senders RTL mit Armin Laschet am 15.07.2021. Schaut man das ganze Interview, wird deutlich, dass es technische Probleme gibt”. In the full exchange, the moderator asks how Laschet will help. Laschet is silent for 17 seconds, then says he cannot hear; the review reports that the moderator confirms there are major problems. When Laschet starts to answer, the interview ends: “Der Moderator fragt «Wie werden Sie denn jetzt helfen?», woraufhin Laschet zunächst 17 Sekunden lang schweigt. Schließlich sagt er leicht vernuschelt: «Ich hör' nichts.»Der Moderator stellt klar, dass es «massive Probleme» gebe. Als Laschet zu einer Antwort ansetzen will («Also wir werden morgen mit dem Land...»), wird das Interview abgebrochen.” The excerpt therefore omits the technical difficulty that explains the pause and the response. The review also notes that the post presenting the clip changed the moderator’s wording: “Auch die Frage des Moderators gibt der Facebook-Nutzer im Übrigen mit den Worten \"Werden Sie denn jetzt da noch helfen...\" falsch wieder.”

FACTLYPolitics & government

Photo of Dainik Bhaskar’s hoarding, criticising BJP

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a social-media photo presented as a Dainik Bhaskar hoarding criticising the BJP. The displayed wording says, “Neither Mahant of the Monastery, nor fake saint,” and claims that news in Uttar Pradesh will no longer be suppressed. The review reports that the image circulated after Income Tax Department searches at Dainik Bhaskar Group offices, but says the photo was altered rather than evidence of an actual newspaper hoarding. To check the image, the review says it searched for reports of such a hoarding and looked at Dainik Bhaskar’s website and social-media accounts, finding no matching reports or photos. It also noted a “Yogi Jhootha Hai” watermark and found the same image on a Facebook account of that name, posted on 22 July 2021. The review describes that post as satirical, saying it portrayed what Dainik Bhaskar would supposedly want to do after the government tried to suppress its voice. The decisive comparison came from a reverse image search. The review found a similar image in a News Nation article about a Delhi hoarding, published on 04 January 2020. It identifies the location as Paschim Vihar in West Delhi and reports that the original image and the viral photo have an identical background. On that basis, it concludes that the viral photo was morphed from the earlier image—not a photograph of the claimed Dainik Bhaskar hoarding.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

FACT CHECK: පෝට්සිටි පනතට දැක්වු සහයට Port City ලොක්කාගෙන් රනිල්ට ස්තූතිය?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned a reported private dinner between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Jiang Houliang, a Port City project executive. A message circulated with the allegation that Houliang thanked Wickremesinghe for not opposing the Port City bill in Parliament. The review focused on that alleged parliamentary support and on what the dinner was said to be for; it did not claim to independently establish every conversation at the gathering. It reports that Wickremesinghe’s media office described the photographs as showing a private dinner to which he had been invited, while former MP Ruwan Wijewardene called it a courtesy dinner and said the bill had not been mentioned in the friendly conversation. The decisive timeline contradicts the message’s implication that Wickremesinghe had failed to oppose the bill as a sitting MP. The bill passed on May 20, 2021. The review says he was sworn in as an MP only on June 23, after being appointed through the UNP national list. It therefore concludes that he could not have cast a parliamentary vote on the bill at its passage. The review also says the Port City public-relations chief described the July 17 dinner as a private farewell gathering organized before Houliang left the project, with thanks extended to people and institutions that had supported it under two governments. That account supplies a different explanation for the dinner and its expression of thanks; it does not independently verify the precise conversation. The review explicitly limits its conclusion: it says the actual subjects discussed at the dinner could not be independently verified and were not investigated. Its finding is thus directed at the specific story that Houliang thanked Wickremesinghe for not opposing the bill—not a claim that no dinner occurred or that the gathering’s full conversation is known.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: 2017 dated picture of Yogi Adityanath being reshared now with fresh narrative

Publisher’s rating: MISSING CONTEXT

Fact Crescendo examined a social-media post that presented Yogi Adityanath as distributing wheat. The review says the post relied on a meme: one group was sharing the claim about free wheat distribution, while others mocked it, and the reader shared the meme believing its displayed claim to be true. The review’s conclusion is that the image was not evidence of a current wheat-distribution event. [S1]

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

FACT CHECK: මෙක්සිකානු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙකු ඇඳුම් ඉවත් කරමින් විරෝධතාවක් දැක්වුයේ කුමකට ද?

Publisher’s rating: Missing Context

The review examined a social-media post claiming that a Mexican parliamentarian removed all his clothes during a debate to protest that the country’s rulers were stealing public money and leaving people without basic necessities. It found that the underlying protest was real, but that the post attached a misleading explanation to it. The legislator identified in the review as Antonio Garcia removed his clothing during a parliamentary session to oppose a controversial law opening Mexico’s oil sector to foreign investment and private companies. The review dates the law and protest to 2013. The excerpts do not establish a more precise date for the parliamentary incident. To check the image’s background, the investigators say they used reverse-image search. They also describe locating a full video of Garcia’s speech on YouTube; he spoke in Spanish, and the review says he removed his clothing after about the 11-minute mark. It reports that news coverage, including BBC and Reuters accounts, connected the protest to the oil legislation. The review also says other reports described the issue as a law allowing private investors access to the state oil and gas company. The distinction is what Garcia was protesting and what words the viral post claimed he had used. According to the review, his speech challenged the transfer of national resources and questioned the benefits of the measure, with the reported wording including “This is how you’re stripping the nation. Where is the benefit?” The review says the speech did not contain the post’s alleged statement about rulers stealing people’s money and facilities. Its conclusion: the stripping protest happened, but the post misrepresented its stated context and attributed unsupported remarks to Garcia.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Thirumavalavan not tweeted regarding China bankruptcy issue

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

Fact Crescendo investigated a viral screenshot that purported to show Thol. Thirumavalavan blaming Modi for Chinese banks’ bankruptcy. The screenshot included a supposed tweet and a reply from a user identified as “Ramg”; the review says Pon Hariraj Hari posted it on July 22, 2021. The review examined whether the screenshot came from Thirumavalavan’s account, rather than treating the screenshot itself as proof that he had tweeted the words.

Boatos.orgPolitics & government

Na Argentina ta tudo normal! STF da Argentina foi fechado a força, os ministros sumiram. Colocaram o amigo de Lula, Dória e STF na presidência e se arrependerem.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Argentinians forcibly closing their highest court, with its ministers missing and the armed forces on the public’s side. The review says the same video was circulated with the quoted message claiming “STF da Argentina foi fechado a força” and “os ministros sumiram.” It concludes that neither the alleged closure nor the ministers’ disappearance happened. To check the video’s context, the review says it searched for reliable reporting of an attack on Argentine police and, finding none, used reverse-image searching. It found an earlier version of the footage dated to 2018 and identified it as video from a December 18, 2017 protest against pension reform. The review cites reporting that placed the recording at Plaza del Congreso in Buenos Aires and said a police officer was seriously injured by protesters. That documented setting does not support the video’s description as a recent attack connected to closing the court. The review also explains that Argentina’s highest court is called the Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina, not “STF.” It says that its search of reliable sources found no reports of the court being closed and that information instead indicated normal operations. Its conclusion is that the video and the claim attached to it do not establish that the Argentine public closed the court.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: This video is not related with Modi nor the parliament I நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் மோடியை கிழித்தெடுத்த எதிர்க்கட்சி எம்.பி என்று பரவும் ராஜஸ்தான் சட்டமன்ற வீடியோ!

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video shared as showing an opposition MP attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament. Fact Crescendo’s investigation concluded that the setting and speaker had been misidentified: the footage was from the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, and the speaker was independent MLA Baljeet Yadav, not an MP. The review says it found the video after searching for reports of an MLA criticizing Modi in the Rajasthan assembly, then identified Yadav by searching for other recordings of him speaking in the assembly. The review describes comparing the chamber in the video with state assembly chambers. It notes that the seating did not resemble either house of India’s Parliament, and that Rajasthan’s assembly matched the video’s light-green interior. It also mentions a restriction on sitting in a seat with a red ribbon as another clue associated with the Rajasthan assembly. Together, these observations support the review’s identification of the venue; the review does not present the footage as a parliamentary speech. The distinction changes what the video establishes. Although the speaker was criticizing Modi, the review says it was not a speech by an opposition MP in Parliament, and that Modi was not present. The viral description therefore assigned the video both the wrong institution and the wrong legislative role to its speaker.