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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.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

Farmers chanting pro-Pakistan slogans in a protest rally against the new farm bills

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show farmers at a rally against India’s new farm bills chanting “Kashmir will become Pakistan” and “Punjab will become Khalistan.” FACTLY examined the video being circulated with that claim and concluded that it was not footage of the farmers’ protest. Its account identifies the scene as a 2015 rally in Baramulla, North Kashmir, held by Sikh protesters in response to the desecration of the Sikh holy book.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaPolitics & government

මෑතදී අතිවු සිදුවීම් අළලා ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ මතයන් ලෙස ඉදිරිපත්ව ඇති අසත්‍ය සටහන් පෙළක්! | Series of fake claims targeting JVP members on current events

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a series of social-media posts presenting statements about current events as the views of JVP members. The examples included claims attributed to Sunil Handunnetthi about the Mahara prison deaths, Vijitha Herath about a Cuban vaccine, Bimal Rathnayake about witnesses in the Lalith-Kugan case, and K. D. Lalkantha about COVID-19 remedies. The publisher says the posts were circulating in formats made to look like newspaper articles or a tweet. [S1: “මෑත කාලීන සිදුවීම් කිහිපයක් අළලා ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ සහ එහි ක්‍රියාකාරීන්ගේ මත බවට පළවූ සටහන් කිහිපයක්”] To check the attributions, the review reports contacting the JVP media unit, which said the statements in the posts were false. It also says it asked Herath about the vaccine statement; he denied making it recently. The review describes follow-up with Dinamina’s news desk and the named journalist, who said no such article had recently appeared, and says the newspaper’s recent issues did not contain the article. [S1: “මෙම සටහන්වල අන්තර්ගත කරුණු සියල්ල සාවද්‍ය බවත්, තම පක්ෂයේ ක්‍රියාකාරීන් මෙවැනි අදහස් කිසිසේත් ප්‍රකාශ නොකරන බවත් එහි මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකරණ නිලධාරි උපුල් රංජන් මහතා අවධාරණය කළේය.”] [S1: “එවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් මෑතකදී සිදුකලේ නැති බව පවසා සිටියා.”] The review also reports that the Handunnetthi post appeared to be an edited version of an interview in the 22 November Sunday edition of Mawbima, and that Lalkantha denied making the circulated remarks when shown the posts. Its conclusion covers the posts concerning the Mahara prison unrest and a locally promoted COVID-19 remedy. Thus the evidence presented is a set of reported denials and checks against the purported newspaper source—not independent verification of every underlying event mentioned in the fabricated attributions. [S1: “නොවැම්බර් මස 22 වැනි දින ඉරිදා මව්බිම පුවත්පතේ (19 පිටුවේ) එම සාකච්ඡාව පළ කර තිබුනු අතර එය සංස්කරණය කරමින් බොහෝදුරට පලකර ඇති බව අපට පෙනී ගියා.”] [S1: “මෙවැනි පහත් හාස්‍යජනක ප්‍රකාශ තමා නොපවසන බවත්”] [S1: “අපගේ විමර්ශනයෙන් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ මෑත කාලීනසිදුවීම් වන මහර බන්ධනාගාර කැරැල්ල සහ කෑගල්ලේ වෙද මහතෙකු විසින් කොරෝනා ආසාදනය සඳහා නිෂ්පාදනය කරන ලද දේශීය ඖෂධය ඇතුළු කරුණු අලලා ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ සක්‍රීය ක්‍රියාකරුවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ෆේස්බුක් ජාලයේ හුවමාරු වන ඉහත සටහන් සාවද්‍ය සටහන් බවය.”

FACTLYPolitics & government

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh met Mukesh Ambani to discuss the concerns of the agitating farmers

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video presented as showing Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh meeting Mukesh Ambani to discuss the concerns of farmers protesting the new farm bills. The review identifies the footage as showing a meeting in Mumbai in 2017, not a recent meeting about the protests: it says Singh and Ambani discussed investment and industrial development opportunities in Punjab. That difference in the meeting’s date and stated purpose undermines the post’s framing of the video. The review also describes reporting on what happened at the meeting. It says Singh met Ambani one-to-one, followed by delegation-level talks in which Reliance presented its business plans; opportunities in Punjab’s farm sector were also discussed. That detail is relevant but does not establish that the meeting concerned the agitating farmers’ objections to the new bills. The review adds that it found no recent news reports of a meeting between Singh and Ambani about those concerns. The investigation therefore distinguishes discussion of business opportunities, including in the farm sector, from discussion of the protesters’ concerns. Its account attributes the video to a 2017 meeting and says it was being recirculated as though it depicted a recent meeting about the protests.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Indian farmers raising ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ slogans and praising Pakistan PM, Imran Khan in the ongoing protests over the new farm bills

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a video of people raising “Khalistan Zindabad” slogans and praising Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, as footage from Indian farmers’ protests against the new farm bills. FACTLY’s review says the video instead shows members of the Sikh community in the United States and is not connected to those protests. To check the video’s provenance, the review reports conducting a reverse image search using screenshots from it. That search found similar visuals in a YouTube video titled “Sikhs in America chanted Long live Imran Khan.” The review also cites a Siasat.pk tweet describing Sikhs in America chanting slogans in support of Imran Khan, and a Facebook post by Pakistan politician Abdul Aleem Khan that shared the same video as support for Imran Khan from Sikhs in America. The review further says the video had circulated online with similar claims since 2019. It concludes that the footage was falsely linked to the farmers’ protests: the identified location and people do not match the post’s description of Indian farmers at those protests.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

बसपा सुप्रीमो पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री उ प्र बहन कुमारी मायावती जी ने राजभवन जाकर राज्यपाल आदरणीय आनंदी बेन पटेल जी को ज्ञापन सौंपती किसान आंदोलन में तीनों कानून मे बदलाव करने की मांग की

Publisher’s rating: False

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

హమారా హిందుస్తాన్ ప్యారా సా హిందూస్తాన్ అనే ఫేస్‌బుక్ పేజిలో పోలీసుల ముందు పెద్ద కర్రతో నిరసన వ్యక్తం చేస్తున్న మహిళ ఫోటోను పోస్ట్‌ చేసి.. ఇది రైతుల నిరసనలోని దృశ్యమంటూ పేర్కొన్నారు

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo posted by the Facebook page “హమారా హిందుస్తాన్ ప్యారా సా హిందూస్తాన్” (Hamara Hindustan Pyara Sa Hindustan). It showed a woman with a large stick facing police and was presented as a scene from the farmers’ protests. Vishvas News reports that its investigation found the image was not related to those protests and that it had circulated online with different claims since 2016. To trace the image, the review says it used Google reverse image search. It found the photo posted on the Hyderabad Funny Club Facebook page on September 10, 2016, without a description. The review also found the same image in a tweet by Tiju Thankachan dated October 4, 2018, which described it as a farmers’ protest. When contacted by Vishvas News, Thankachan said he had seen the photo on WhatsApp and shared it, had not taken it himself, and was sure it was old rather than from recent protests. The review distinguishes what it could establish from what it could not: it says it was unable to independently identify the photo’s original source, but concluded that the image did not depict the ongoing farmers’ protests. The earlier 2016 posting and the account from the person who shared it in 2018 support that conclusion; the excerpt does not establish where or when the photograph was actually taken.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Eine einmalige Corona-Sonderzahlung für Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des Bundestags sorgt für Empörung. Angeblich erhalte jeder Mitarbeiter laut Beschluss des Ältestenrates 600 Euro. Dabei hätten andere Menschen in der Coronakrise das Geld viel nötiger. «Schämt euch, ihr "Volksvertreter"», heißt es etwa in einem Facebook-Post (hier archiviert).

Publisher’s rating: Durch die Corona-Sonderzahlung wird der Tarifabschluss für die Beschäftigten des öffentlichen Dienstes von Oktober 2020 im Sinne der Gleichbehandlung auch auf die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter der Abgeordneten des Bundestags übertragen. Die Zahlung beträgt nicht einheitlich 600 Euro, sondern ist nach Gehaltsgruppen gestaffelt.

The claim concerned a one-off Corona payment for staff employed by Bundestag members. A Facebook post alleged that every such employee would receive €600 following a decision by the Bundestag’s Council of Elders, and criticized the payment as unfair. The review examined how the payment for those staff was set and whether the €600 figure applied to everyone. The review reports that on 25 October 2020, public-sector employers and unions reached an agreement on a one-off payment ranging from €300 to €600, with the largest payments going to lower pay groups; apprentices in federal employment were to receive €200. Bundestag members’ staff are not public-sector employees: they have fixed-term private-law contracts with individual members. The parliamentary commission responsible for their employment matters proposed applying the public-sector payment rules to them, and the Council of Elders accepted that proposal. The decisive qualification is that the payment for a Bundestag member’s employee depended on the person’s agreement or classification in their employment contract. The Bundestag spokesperson told dpa that not every such employee received €600, just as €600 was not paid to every public-sector employee. The review also reports that applying public-sector pay increases equivalently to Bundestag members’ staff was described by the Bundestag as a usual practice. Thus the post’s universal €600 assertion was inaccurate, while the payment itself reflected the public-sector agreement rather than a uniform amount for all staff.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Rajnath Singh has come out in support of the farmers who are protesting opposing the new farm bills

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated during the farmers’ protests against India’s new farm bills, presented as showing Defence Minister Rajnath Singh supporting those protesters. The review says the footage is old and depicts Singh speaking at a farmers’ dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in 2013, rather than at the later protest over the bills. To check the video’s origin, FACTLY reports searching with relevant keywords and finding an extended version on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s official YouTube channel. Its title identifies Singh addressing farmers staging a dharna at Jantar Mantar and gives the date as 20 March 2013. The review also says the same video appeared on Singh’s official website. The review places the footage in the context of a separate farmers’ gathering: it cites The Hindu’s account that thousands of farmers gathered in New Delhi in March 2013 for a Mahapanchayat seeking an income commission to guarantee farmers a minimum income. The video therefore documents Singh addressing that 2013 gathering; it does not establish that he supported the later protests opposing the new farm bills.