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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

Er gaan al weken foto's rond op sociale media waarin de moeder van Amerikaans president Donald Trump haar zoon een "idioot met nul gezond verstand noemt". Ook hoopt Mary Anne Trump volgens de berichten dat haar zoon nooit in de politiek zou gaan. Maar kloppen de uitspraken wel?

Publisher’s rating: Er is geen bewijs dat de moeder van Trump die uitspraken zou hebben gedaan. Bovendien is het eerder onwaarschijnlijk dat het klopt, omdat ze niet opdoken tijdens Trump's presidentiële kandidatuur in 2016.

The claim concerned a social-media image attributing two remarks to Donald Trump’s mother, Mary Anne Trump: that her son was an “idiot with zero common sense” and that she hoped he would never enter politics. The review says the image began circulating on Facebook and Instagram around April 10, 2020, and that it used a photograph from a New Yorker article about Trump’s mother. The review reports that the attributed remarks do not appear in that article and that it found no evidence she had said them. [S1: “De foto's werden rond 10 april voor het eerst verspreid op Facebook en Instagram.”; “De foto die wordt gedeeld, komt uit een artikel van het Amerikaanse tijdschrift The New Yorker, waarin de uitspraken ook niet voorkomen.”] The review also tested whether the alleged quote fitted the known chronology. It says Mary Anne Trump, whose birth name was MacLeod, died in 2000. By then, her son was already a wealthy businessman, and the review notes that he had pursued a presidential candidacy that year. It argues that a striking comment about his political prospects would likely have been newsworthy and could have been used against him during his 2016 presidential candidacy; however, its searches found no such report. [S1: “Een achtergrondcheck van Mary Anne leert ons dat ze in 2000 stierf.”; “Een grondige zoekopdracht van artikels - specifiek voor het jaar 2000 - toont verder ook geen resultaten dat MacLeod dergelijke uitspraken zou hebben gedaan.”] Taken together, the review’s account supports the conclusion that the image’s attribution is unsupported and, in light of the unsuccessful search for contemporaneous reporting, unlikely to be genuine. It does not establish that no private conversation ever occurred; rather, it reports no evidence that she made these statements and explains why the absence of reporting is significant in this case. The review also mentions a different reported remark from a 1990 Vanity Fair issue, underscoring that the alleged political quote was not among the few public statements it found. [S1: “Daardoor lijkt het alvast onrealistisch, aangezien zulke uitspraken bijzonder nieuwswaardig zijn en makkelijk tegen hem gebruikt zouden kunnen worden tijdens zijn presidentiële kandidatuur in 2016.”; “Reuters vond een editie van Vanity Fair in 1990, waarin ze ‘wat voor zoon heb ik gemaakt?’ zou hebben gezegd tegen Trump's eerste vrouw Ivana.”]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Volgens een foto op Instagram zou Hongaars-Amerikaans zakenman George Soros gezegd hebben dat hij de Verenigde Staten wil neerhalen door zwarte haatgroepen te sponsoren. In een interview met het Duitse dagblad Bild-Zeitung zou Soros in 2014 verteld hebben dat hij ze in een "mentale valstrik" wil lokken, zodat ze "witte mensen de schuld geven". Maar wat is daarvan aan?

Publisher’s rating: George Soros heeft nooit zulke uitspraken gedaan. Het gaat om een oude hoax die enkele jaren eerder ook opdook. Soros heeft nooit een dergelijk interview gegeven aan Bild.

The claim concerns a specific alleged 2014 interview with Bild: Soros supposedly said he would bring down the United States by sponsoring Black hate groups and manipulate them into blaming white people. The review reports that the image attributed several related statements to Soros, including that the Black community was easiest to manipulate. It says its examination of Bild’s archives and a Google search for “Soros” and “Bild” found no support for those quotations; the review describes them as fabricated. The review also checked what Bild had actually published about Soros in 2014. It found two articles, dated 3 April and 1 November, and says neither contained references to the alleged remarks. This directly addresses the claimed interview and its date, rather than merely disputing a similar statement. For earlier provenance, the review says the hoax had been fact-checked by Politifact and Snopes several years before, and that the quotation was first linked to Soros in 2016. It also reports that Politifact contacted the Open Society Foundations, which said the post was untrue. Together, the described archive search, the two identified Bild articles, and the cited prior investigation support the review’s conclusion that the alleged Bild interview and quotations are not genuine.

FACTLYPolitics & government

An infographic showing that Telangana CM KCR has been ranked as the most popular CM

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an infographic circulating on social media that presents Telangana Chief Minister KCR as the most popular CM in CVoter’s “State of the Nation May 2020” survey. FACTLY says it checked whether the posted graphic matched the survey rankings, rather than whether KCR had ever been popular in other polls. Its account identifies the infographic as edited and says KCR was not ranked first in that survey. [S1: “The posted infographic is an edited one. The infographic is based on the rankings given to various CMs in the recent CVoter’s ‘State of the Nation May 2020’ survey conducted with a sample of 3000 people from every state. Telangana CM KCR was not ranked as the most popular CM in the survey.”] The article describes two checks on the graphic and its claimed basis. A reverse image search found a similar infographic posted by a Shiva Sena leader, but that version named Odisha’s CM as most popular and did not include KCR. FACTLY also found that the graphic identified the Times of India as its maker, then located a Times of India article that placed KCR among the least popular CMs. [S1: “When the posted infographic was run through Google Reverse Image Search, it was found that a similar infographic was posted by a Shiva Sena leader on her Twitter account. But it can be seen that Odisha CM was ranked as the most popular CM in the infographic, and CM KCR was not there on the infographic. She mentioned in her tweet that the rankings were based on the CVoter survey. Also, at the bottom of the infographic, it can be seen that the infographic was made by ‘Times of India’. So, when searched with the keywords, an article by ‘Times of India’ was found. In the article, it can be seen that KCR was placed among the least popular CMs.”] The article further reports that the full rankings listed KCR in 16th place. It distinguishes this result from other, earlier surveys in which KCR had been found to be the most popular CM; those earlier results do not support attributing that ranking to the May 2020 survey. [S1: “The total list of the rankings can be found on the ‘IANS’ website. In the list, it can be seen that Telangana (CM KCR) has been placed at the 16th position in the rankings. The mentioned survey is one of the many surveys being conducted at frequent intervals by various organizations on the performance of the Chief Minister in various States. Some of the results of other previous surveys can be seen here, here and here. Telangana CM KCR was found to be the mode popular CM in some of the earlier surveys.”]

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: American protestors not entered in the White House

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a social-media video said to show protesters entering the White House during US protests against racial discrimination. Its narration, in Tamil, also claimed that gunfire had occurred and the president had fled. The review reports that the post was shared on Facebook on June 1, 2020, with a caption asserting that demonstrators entered the White House and Trump ran away. To identify the building, the reviewers say they used reverse-image search and compared the video’s building with results for Ohio’s Capitol. They concluded that the building was not the White House but the Ohio Statehouse, also called the Ohio State Building. They report that a Google Street View comparison showed the Statehouse and a billboard visible behind it. The review further says that other outlets had published photographs of protesters entering that Ohio building, and that videos of the incident were circulating on social media. Its conclusion is that the footage depicts an event at the Ohio Statehouse, not an entry into the White House.

NewtralPolitics & government

Foto de la bandera con los colores de la Segunda República y el escudo del régimen de Franco

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined an image circulating on Twitter that appeared to show two people holding a flag with the colors of the Second Republic and the Franco regime’s eagle of Saint John. The review says the image is a montage, rather than an authentic photograph of such a flag. As supporting evidence, Newtral points to the photograph’s earlier publication by La Voz de Galicia in 2017. It says that comparison with the original shows the people holding Spain’s current flag, bearing the coat of arms established under the 1981 law—not a flag with the colors attributed to it in the circulating image. The review identifies the La Voz de Galicia archive as its source for the original photograph.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: The young lady with Jayalalithaa is not Nirmala Sitharaman

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examines a viral photograph described as showing former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa with Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister at the time. It concludes that the woman beside Jayalalithaa is not Sitharaman, but writer Sivasankari. The article says it compared a photograph of Sitharaman when young with the woman in the viral image and found their facial features did not match: “நிர்மலா சீதாராமனின் இளவயது புகைப்படத்தையும், நாம் ஆய்வு செய்யும் புகைப்படத்தில் உள்ள பெண்ணையும் ஒப்பிட்டு பார்த்தோம். ஆனால், அவர்களின் முக சாயல் ஒத்துப் போகவில்லை.” The review also describes using reverse-image search to identify the woman in the photograph. It reports that this search identified her as Sivasankari and that Jayalalithaa and Sivasankari had a close friendship: “இந்த புகைப்படத்தில் ஜெயலலிதாவுடன் இருப்பது யார் என அறிய இதனை ரிவர்ஸ் இமேஜ் முறையில் தேடிப் பார்த்தோம். அப்போது, இதில் இருப்பவர் எழுத்தாளர் சிவசங்கரி என்பதும்”; and “சிவசங்கரியுடன் ஜெயலலிதா நெருங்கிய நட்பு பாராட்டி வந்தார்.” These checks address the specific image and the disputed identification, rather than merely comparing the two women in general. For provenance, the review says the photograph was taken by Stills Ravi and published by VintageIndianClothing in 2014. It presents that history alongside its identification of Sivasankari as the person pictured: “குறிப்பிட்ட புகைப்படத்தை Stills Ravi என்பவர் எடுத்துள்ளார். 2014ம் ஆண்டில் VintageIndianClothing என்ற இணையதளம் வெளியிட்டிருக்கிறது.”