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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

Photos and video footage of farmers protest in Panipat

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a collage of photos and a video presented as showing a farmers’ protest in Panipat. FACTLY investigated whether the material depicted the ongoing protests against India’s agriculture bills, rather than older demonstrations. Its conclusion was that the images and video came from earlier farmers’ protests in different places and were not footage of those ongoing protests. The review describes reverse-image searches as its main checking method. For the video, it found a visually similar frame in a Zee News article dated 21 February 2019, about a Kisan Long March from Nashik towards Mumbai after talks between farmers’ groups and Maharashtra’s government failed. It also identified a visual from the video in a Scroll.in article dated 22 February 2019, and reported finding the same video in a CPI(M) tweet. These matches point to earlier protest coverage, not Panipat footage of the ongoing protests. For one photo, the review found a similar image in a YourStory article dated 13 March 2018 about the farmers’ march to Mumbai. Another was matched to a Sabrang article dated 11 September 2017 describing a Rajasthan farmers’ protest. The review says it found similar versions of the remaining photos in other news articles, but the supplied text does not identify those articles or give further details. Taken together, the provenance it reports contradicts the collage’s presentation as current Panipat protest material.

USA TODAYPolitics & government

Joe Biden says the Second Amendment is "obsolete"

Publisher’s rating: Satire

The claim concerns a purported statement by Joe Biden that the Second Amendment was “obsolete.” USA TODAY traced the quotation to an article from America’s Last Line of Defense, which was shared on Facebook. The article described Biden supposedly making the remark during a campaign speech at a purported Jewish community center in Virginia. The review identified the venue and location in the story as “Joe Barron Jewish community center in Pohtaytoe, Virginia,” details that form part of the article’s deliberately absurd presentation. The investigation checked the originating site’s own disclosures. USA TODAY reported that its page was labeled “SATIRE FOR YOUR CONFIRMATION BIAS,” that the article appeared under a section identifying Biden satire, and that the site described itself as a network of “parody, satire, and tomfoolery.” The review also quoted the site’s disclaimer that everything on it is fiction. These statements establish the origin and intended nature of the purported quotation; the review did not present it as a verified Biden statement. The review distinguished Biden’s actual policy advocacy from the alleged quote. It described his plan as including universal background checks, enforcement of existing gun laws, “smart guns,” and an assault-weapons ban. It also reported that Biden had advocated stricter gun laws but had not pledged to take away the Second Amendment, and cited NBC reporting that he had said he was not opposed to it. Taken together, the evidence supports the conclusion that the “obsolete” line came from satire, not an established Biden statement.

FACTLYPolitics & government

During the tenure of Congress government(2004-14), posts in various departments ranging from Supreme court judges to university vice-chancellors to Indian ambassadors to secretaries in different ministries are filled up with Muslims and Christians whereas the count of Hindus in these posts is meagre and this is due to Muslim-Christian reservation

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an alleged religious imbalance in senior public appointments during the Congress-led government from 2004 to 2014, and attributes it to reservation for Muslims and Christians. FACTLY examined figures circulated in a social-media post, including its examples of Supreme Court judges and IAS officers. Its review says the post’s totals appeared arbitrary and reports that the Constitution does not provide reservation on the basis of religion. For Supreme Court appointments, the post claimed that 23 judges were appointed during the Congress regime in 2008, of whom 20 were Muslim or Christian and only three Hindu. FACTLY compared this with information on the Supreme Court website: it says 46 judges were appointed over the full 2004–14 UPA period, and that the Hindu count was much higher than the combined Muslim and Christian count. It also notes that appointments follow a proposal from the Chief Justice after consultation with the four senior-most judges, limiting the executive’s role. For IAS officers, FACTLY used information on the Department of Personnel & Training website and compared candidate categories in the list; it says the Hindu count was far greater than the Muslim and Christian counts. The review qualifies this method: it inferred religion from names, and says it could not find specific data for several other kinds of posts listed in the social-media post. Thus its evidence challenges the post’s examples and its reservation explanation, but does not supply comprehensive, religion-specific counts for every department or role mentioned.

USA TODAYPolitics & government

Joe Biden waved to an empty field after deplaning in Florida.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

USA TODAY examined a video from Biden’s September 2020 arrival in Tampa, Florida. The claim spread through social-media posts and commentary describing him as waving at “no one” or an “empty field.” The review says the footage itself was real, but that the interpretation omitted people on the tarmac: Biden had stepped off the plane and was waving to people in the area. The review’s account draws on reporting from people who were there and on video evidence. An Associated Press reporter confirmed Biden waved to firefighters and other ground personnel on the right side of the tarmac, before waving to reporters on the left. Bloomberg reporter Tyler Pager posted video of the moment; USA TODAY says that at the 15-second mark, at least four firefighters and several firetrucks can be seen in the background. CNN reporter Sarah Mucha also described Biden as waving to firefighters stationed on the tarmac. These details address the central question in the claim: whether the apparent wave was directed at an empty field. The reported presence of firefighters and ground personnel, together with the contemporaneous accounts and visible figures in Pager’s video, contradicts that description. USA TODAY therefore rated the claim “False.”