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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

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Narayanan Thirupathy not criticized Karunanidhi birthday trend on Twitter

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns a tweet that appeared to criticize Twitter for posting a birthday message for Karunanidhi but not a similar message for the prime minister. Fact Crescendo examined whether BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy had actually posted it. The review says the message circulated with a screenshot of a Twitter trend and was shared as if it came from Thirupathy.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Photo of Jawaharlal Nehru posing with Indira Gandhi’s husband Feroze Khan and her father-in-law Yunus Khan

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim identifies the two men pictured with Jawaharlal Nehru as Indira Gandhi’s husband, Feroze Khan, and her father-in-law, Yunus Khan. FACTLY’s review says the image instead shows Nehru and Indira Gandhi with Russian artist Nicholas Roerich and Indian freedom fighter Mohammad Yunus Khan. The distinction is central: the man identified as Yunus Khan is not Indira Gandhi’s father-in-law. To investigate the image, the review reports conducting a reverse image search. It found a similar photograph on the Alamy image-sharing website, where the man standing to Indira Gandhi’s left was identified as Roerich. The review also says Wikipedia used the same photograph with a similar description, identifying the other man beside Roerich as Mohammad Yunus Khan. The review separately compared the people in the image with information about Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi’s father-in-law. It points to a different photograph of Feroze Gandhi published by The Week and says that article names the father-in-law as Faredoon Jehangir Ghandy. Taken together, those identifications distinguish the people in the circulated image from the relatives named in the claim.

The Dispatch Fact CheckPolitics & government

Two Democratic senators vote more with Republicans than Democrats.

Publisher’s rating: False

The review concerns President Joe Biden’s statement that Democrats had “two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.” He made the remark during an event commemorating the Tulsa Massacre. Although Biden did not name the senators, the review says the remark was widely interpreted as referring to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The supplied excerpt labels Biden’s claim false, but it does not include the review’s supporting analysis or voting evidence. It therefore establishes which statement and senators the review addresses, but does not show how the review reached its verdict.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Sonia Gandhi’s image with ‘How to Convert India into Christian Nation’ book

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media image presented as showing Sonia Gandhi with a book titled “How to Convert India into Christian Nation,” as well as a Bible and a Jesus Christ replica. FACTLY compared the circulated image with other images and video frames showing the same scene. It reported that the images in news articles and Rahul Gandhi’s video did not show the book, Bible or replica, and concluded that the circulated image had been altered. The review describes two checks. A reverse-image search led to a Hindustan Times article whose caption identified its image as a screenshot from a video posted by the Indian National Congress’s official account. The review then says it found Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter post containing a video with frames matching the images in the news articles. In those comparison images and video frames, the alleged religious objects were absent. The review also points to a watermark reading “@noconversion” on the left-hand side of the circulated image. It treats that watermark, alongside the side-by-side comparison with the news images and video, as evidence that the post’s image had been morphed—not as evidence that Sonia Gandhi was photographed with the claimed book.

Factcrescendo SrilankaPolitics & government

யாழில் அமைந்துள்ள இந்திய தூதரகத்தின் பெயர் பலகையில் சிங்கள மொழி நீக்கம்.

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review investigated social-media posts claiming that Sinhala had been removed from the signboard at the Indian Deputy High Commission in Jaffna, allegedly in response to China removing Tamil from a sign in Sri Lanka’s developing port city. It says the claim circulated alongside that comparison, but the evidence it describes does not support a recent removal: Google Maps showed a photograph of the Jaffna sign from 2015, and Sinhala was already absent in that image. The review also refers to a photograph taken at the Deputy High Commission during the 2019 National Independence Day celebrations, in which the signboard was visible. It says the publisher checked official Indian sources and confirmed there had been no recent changes to the signboard. Taken together, the earlier image and the official-source check counter the claim that Sinhala was newly removed. As additional comparison, the review says it examined signboards at other regional countries’ diplomatic offices in Sri Lanka. It reports that the Pakistan High Commission’s sign was in English, while the Maldives High Commission’s sign was in Dhivehi and English; neither included Sinhala. That comparison does not establish the history of the Jaffna sign, but it is consistent with the review’s conclusion that the social-media claim misrepresented the sign’s earlier appearance as a recent change.