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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

Barack Obama’s tweet about feeling ashamed to shake hands with Narendra Modi

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a screenshot of a purported tweet in which Barack Obama says he feels ashamed to shake hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. FACTLY says it checked Obama’s official Twitter handle and found no tweet about shaking hands with Modi. It reports that the two tweets on December 5, 2020, were about Obama’s book, *A Promised Land*—not the statement shown in the screenshot. The review also examined features of the screenshot itself. It points to spelling mistakes and to differences in the alignment of the profile picture and attached photos compared with a normal tweet. These are presented as signs that the image had been altered, rather than as evidence of a genuine post. FACTLY separately used a reverse image search to investigate the photograph incorporated into the post. It traced the image of Modi and Obama to Modi’s four-day U.S. visit in 2014, and says the photograph was taken after a media briefing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on September 30, 2014. Taken together, the reported account search, visible image inconsistencies, and older photograph’s provenance support the conclusion that the screenshot does not show an authentic Obama tweet.

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

டில்லியில் விவசாயிகள் போராட்டம் என்ற பெயரில் நடக்கும் நாடகத்துக்கு ரூ.350/- கூலியாமே

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim accompanies a video said to show daily-wage workers being paid ₹350 to take part in the farmers’ protest in Delhi. Vishvas News examined whether that video documented the then-current protest and found that it was old footage from a different event. The review says the footage had appeared in a 2018 post by Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra, identified as showing Kejriwal’s Haryana rally; it also reports that other news coverage identified it as footage from an Aam Aadmi Party rally in Hisar. The investigation used keyframes extracted from the viral video and Google reverse-image search to trace earlier appearances. Vishvas News also noted that people in the video were not wearing winter clothing or masks, and that the footage showed a rally, whereas the current farmers’ protest was not a rally. These observations were presented alongside the earlier posts and reports to establish that the video did not depict the protest named in the claim. The review further says the Aam Aadmi Party denied paying people to attend the protest. It quotes party leader Deepak Bajpai describing the video as old and the allegations as baseless. Its conclusion is specifically about the video and its attribution: the footage was not recorded during the current farmers’ protest.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Misinformation that Arjuna Murthy worked as advisor for Murasoli Maran

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated social-media posts claiming that Arjuna Murthy had worked as an adviser or assistant to Murasoli Maran. It says the inquiry followed a reader’s question about a photograph showing a man with Maran, after posts identified the man as Murthy and said he had worked for Maran. The review places the circulation of this claim in the wake of actor Rajinikanth’s announcement that Arjuna Murthy would be the chief coordinator of his new party.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau taking part in a protest organized in solidarity with the Indian farmers’ protest.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post used an image of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sitting with a Sikh congregation to claim he was taking part in a protest organized in solidarity with Indian farmers. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the scene as a visit to Gurdwara Sahib Ottawa Sikh Society in Ottawa in 2015—not a farmers’ protest. The image therefore does not show the event the post attributed to it. To check the image’s history, FACTLY reports conducting a reverse image search. That search led to 2015 news articles carrying the same image; one reported that it was taken during Trudeau’s visit to the Ottawa Sikh society. The review also located the image on Reuters Pictures and on a stock-photography website. The latter’s description said it was taken on 11 November 2015 during Trudeau’s visit to the gurdwara. This provenance places the image years before the farmers’ protest referenced in the post and identifies a different setting: a visit to a Sikh congregation in Ottawa, rather than participation in a solidarity protest. The review also notes that Trudeau had made comments supporting the farmers’ protest, but that fact does not establish that he attended a protest or that this older photograph depicts one.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Pro-Khalistan protesters holding placards demanding separate Khalistan in the ongoing farmers protest over farm bills

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post linked an image of a protester displaying a placard demanding a separate Khalistan to the farmers’ protest over the farm bills. The review also examined a video circulated alongside such claims. It concluded that neither piece of material showed the ongoing farmers’ protest: the video was from a San Francisco protest, while the image was from an earlier event at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. For the video, the review reports finding versions of the same footage in Facebook posts dating to 2018. It then examined a higher-resolution version, noted “San Francisco” on the protesters’ T-shirts, and used Google Maps to identify the location shown as San Francisco. This evidence supported the review’s conclusion that the video depicted a pro-Khalistan protest march there, rather than the farmers’ protest. For the image, the review says reverse-image searches led to a news article carrying the same photograph and crediting it to AFP. Searching AFP-contributed images on Getty Images then led to the same image; its description placed it at the Golden Temple on the 29th anniversary of Operation Blue Star in 2013. The image therefore predates and is unrelated to the farmers’ protest. The review’s conclusion addresses both the video and the placard image, rather than treating the protest imagery as evidence from the farm-bill demonstrations.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Farmers disrespecting the Indian national flag in the ongoing protests against farm bills

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY investigated a photo circulated with the claim that farmers were disrespecting India’s national flag during protests against new agriculture laws. The review says the image showed a man placing his shoe on the flag, but its investigation identified the scene as a protest in London in 2013, not the farmers’ protests. To trace the image, FACTLY reports using reverse image search and comparing the image with earlier social-media posts. It also notes that the photo bears the Dal Khalsa U.K. logo, then says it found the same image in an article on the organization’s blog. That article described a gathering of Sikhs, Kashmiris and other minority groups in central London on 15 August 2013. The review further reports that Dal Khalsa U.K. organized the protest at the Indian high commission in central London on India’s Independence Day, and identifies the person in the photo as the organization’s founder, Manmohan Singh Khalsa. These details place the pictured incident years earlier and in a different location and event from the ongoing farmers’ protests. The review concludes that the photo was unrelated to those protests.

YouturnPolitics & government

டில்லியில் விவசாயிகள் போராட்டம் என்ற பெயரில் நடக்கும் நாடகத்துக்கு ரூ.350/- கூலியாமே. கூலி கொடுக்காத காரணத்தால் நடக்கும் சண்டையை பாருங்கள். ஹிந்தி தெரிஞ்சா புரியும் இல்லாட்டி ஹிந்தி தெரியறவங்க கிட்டை காட்டி உண்மையாணு தெரிஞ்சுக்கோங்க.

Publisher’s rating: Fake

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

விவசாயிகள் போராட்டம் இப்போ எங்கே போய் நிக்குது பாருங்க , இவர்களுக்கு Funding அதே புது தில்லி சிஎஎ போராட்ட குழுக்களுக்கு பட்டுவாடா பண்ண அதே குள்ளநரி கூட்டம் தான்

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim accompanied a photograph and alleged that the farmers’ protest was being funded by the same group that had financed groups associated with the Delhi CAA protests. Vishvas News identifies the post and quotes its funding allegation, then focuses its investigation on whether the photograph was taken during the farmers’ protest. The review does not report checking the alleged funding or establishing who financed either set of groups. To trace the image, the reviewers used Google reverse image search and a timeline tool. They found the original photograph on Getty Images. Getty’s description places it at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on June 6, 2013, during a gathering marking the 29th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, and says the banners supported Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Khalistan. That provenance predates the farmers’ protest depicted in the post’s framing. The review also says it contacted SGPC spokesperson Kulwinder Singh, who confirmed that the viral photo was old and unrelated to the ongoing farmers’ protest. The evidence therefore contradicts the post’s use of this particular photograph as an image from that protest. It does not, on the evidence presented, resolve the separate funding allegation.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Maharashtra farmers rally video being shared as Delhi farmers rally

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examines a video of a large farmers’ procession with red flags that was shared as footage of the farmers’ protest in Delhi in November–December 2020. It says one Facebook post, shared on November 30, described it as a Delhi-bound farmers’ “storm”; the investigation checked whether that identification was accurate. The review’s conclusion is that the video was not filmed at the Delhi protest, but at a farmers’ march in Maharashtra in 2018. To investigate the footage, the fact-checkers converted video frames into images and ran a reverse-image search. They found the video on YouTube in a Malayalam-language post uploaded on April 3, 2018. The review says that post identified Himachal Pradesh as the location, so the upload date alone establishes that the footage predates the 2020 Delhi protests, but does not by itself settle where it was filmed. The review describes further comparison with videos of the 2018 march from Nagpur to Mumbai. It reports matching clothing and the same white small vehicle carrying a microphone at the procession’s front. It also says news reports documented a Maharashtra farmers’ march in March 2018. On that combined evidence, the review attributes the footage to the 2018 Maharashtra march and says it was misrepresented as the 2020 Delhi rally.