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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Un message publié sur Facebook le 30 juin 2020 affirme que « la Cours des comptes attend toujours ceux d’Olivier Chastel (sic)», un homme politique belge aujourd’hui député européen. « Plus de 800 jours, à l’heure actuelle toujours sans réponse », souligne le message, qui vise à complèter une autre assertion : Olivier Chastel aurait « oublié de rendre des comptes à la Commission d’accès aux documents administratifs » belge, depuis plus de 800 jours. « Qu’a-t-il à cacher ? »

Publisher’s rating: Rien n’est caché ; le message est trompeur. Olivier Chastel a rempli toutes ses obligations légales de déclaration d’intérêts financiers, tant auprès de la Cour des comptes belge que du Parlement européen. Et la « Commission d’accès aux et de réutilisation des documents administratifs », purement consultative, n’a pas de comptes à réclamer à un mandataire public.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Sonia Gandhi seated in the prominent seat in a bilateral meeting when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photograph showing Sonia Gandhi in a prominent seat during a meeting with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, with Manmohan Singh also present. It was shared as having been taken while Singh was India’s prime minister. The review identifies the meeting as Wickremesinghe’s 2017 visit to India and says the photograph was taken in 2017, after Singh’s 2004–2014 tenure as prime minister. To check the image’s provenance, the review reports that it was subjected to reverse image search, which returned the same picture. It then cites a PTI description identifying the scene as a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and naming former prime minister Manmohan Singh and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as also present. The review also says the same image appeared in an ANI tweet reporting on Wickremesinghe’s 2017 visit. The key distinction is between the people shown and the time the photograph was taken: Singh appears in the image, but the review dates the meeting to 2017, after his time as prime minister. Thus the photograph does not support the claim that it was captured while he held that office.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: MK Stalin not asked for SBI enquiry

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a circulating claim that M.K. Stalin had called for the Tamil Nadu government to order an SBI investigation into the Sathankulam case. It says the claim was presented in what appeared to be a television news card, but the card did not identify a television channel. The review also notes that it bore the label “DMK IT Wing,” which could make it appear to be an official party post, while observing that its font looked unusual. To check the card, the review says it looked for recent posts about Stalin on the DMK IT Wing Twitter account, focusing in particular on the previous two days. It found a post dated June 29, 2020, about a different statement: Stalin said the AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government had not agreed to provide ₹5,000 in aid to people whose livelihoods were affected by the coronavirus lockdown, despite repeated requests. The review does not describe this post as discussing an SBI inquiry. The review concluded that the circulated card had been made by editing a template based on that June 29 post and adding false information about an SBI inquiry. Thus, its stated basis for rejecting the claim is the mismatch between the circulating card’s allegation and the recent party post it identified—not evidence that the post itself called for an SBI investigation.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

D’après une photo publiée sur Facebook, l’investisseur et philanthrope américain, George Soros, voudrait « faire tomber les États-Unis » en parrainant des « groupes de haine noire ». Soros aurait déclaré qu'il souhaitait attirer ces groupes dans une « trappe mentale » pour qu'ils blâment les blancs. La « communauté noire est la plus facile à manipuler ».

Publisher’s rating: George Soros n'a jamais fait de telles déclarations. Ce sont des propos mensongers qui lui ont été attribués depuis quelques années.

The claim attributes a series of statements about bringing down the United States, sponsoring Black hate groups and manipulating Black people to George Soros, supposedly on the basis of a Facebook image. The review traces the French post to older, widely circulated versions in German and English, which said Soros had made the remarks in a 2014 interview with the German newspaper Bild. The investigation checked the underlying interview story against Bild’s archives. It found no 2014 interview with Soros: he appeared in only two Bild articles that year, dated April 3 and November 1, and neither referred to such remarks. The review also reports searches for key words from the alleged quotation in German and French that produced no results supporting it. These checks undermine the claim’s asserted source rather than merely showing that the words are difficult to verify. The review places the attribution’s history in context: it says earlier investigations by PolitiFact and Snopes found that the quotation was first linked to Soros in 2016. It also reports that the Open Society Foundations told PolitiFact the quotation was inauthentic, and that a 20 Minutes spokesperson response described it as fabricated. Taken together, the cited archive checks and reported responses provide no substantiation for the supposed Bild interview or the statements attributed to Soros.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Fake picture of Modi cleaning floor

Publisher’s rating: False

Fact Crescendo examined a black-and-white image circulated as showing Narendra Modi sweeping a floor. The version in the post under review was edited to portray Modi cleaning a jail, alongside a caption calling him a murderer. The review says the post was shared on Facebook on June 27, 2020, by Muhammed Sufian on the Nakkheeran News tamil Live page. It also notes that the image had circulated in earlier years, including in political messaging presenting Modi as a humble person who had risen from modest circumstances. [S1] The investigation reports that the Prime Minister’s Office had previously said, in response to a Right to Information request about the picture, that it was not in its records, that it had been edited, and that the person in it was not Modi. Fact Crescendo then searched for the unaltered photograph and reports finding it in AP Images, where it was identified as a photograph taken in 1946. The review says comparison showed that this older image had been altered to place Modi in the scene. [S1] The review also checked the caption’s separate implication that Modi had been imprisoned after a murder conviction. It reports finding no evidence that he had served a prison sentence for murder. On the evidence it describes—the PMO’s response, the identified 1946 photograph, and the absence of support for the criminal-conviction allegation—the review concludes that the Facebook post was false. [S1]