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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

NewtralPolitics & government

Podemos Málaga ha colgado la bandera de España en forma de soga y ha desplegado la de Corea del Norte

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral investigated a claim circulating again on Twitter that Podemos Málaga had hung Spain’s flag in the shape of a noose and displayed North Korea’s flag. Its review says the claim was not true and that the building shown in the photographs was not the party’s Málaga headquarters. Instead, it identified the location as La Casa Invisible, a self-managed social centre. The centre said it had no “organic or political” connection to Podemos; the review also gives the party’s provincial headquarters as Plaza Diego Vázquez Otero in Málaga. The material therefore misidentified both the building and the party’s relationship to it. [S1: “No es cierto que Podemos Málaga haya colgado la bandera nacional en forma de soga ni ‘desplegado la de Corea del Norte’. La fachada de las instantáneas tampoco pertenece a ‘la casa de Podemos Málaga’, como afirman varios usuarios. En realidad, el edificio que aparece en las fotografías es un centro social autogestionado llamado La Casa Invisible, sin conexión ‘orgánica ni política’ con la formación según afirman en un comunicado. La sede oficial del partido en la provincia está situada en la Plaza Diego Vázquez Otero (Málaga).”] The review traces the images to an art exhibition called *La Guerra. Espacios-tiempos del conflicto*, held at La Casa Invisible from 2 October to 1 November 2017. It describes the flag installation as part of that exhibition, rather than an action by Podemos Málaga. According to the review, the exhibition’s website said its aim was to make visible that war is, in one way or another, everywhere. [S1: “Las imágenes que vemos en la fotografía corresponden en realidad a una exposición artística llamada La Guerra. Espacios-tiempos del conflicto, organizada en La Casa Invisible. Según la página web del proyecto, se llevó a cabo entre el 2 de octubre y el 1 de noviembre de 2017 con el objetivo de ‘visibilizar que la guerra, de una forma u otra, está en todas partes’.”] The review also provides the allegation’s background: it says the story had appeared in several digital outlets in 2017, and that Podemos Málaga denied it on Facebook. It traces the association between the party and the social centre to a Ciudadanos member’s tweet that described the centre as “the house of Podemos Málaga.” The exhibition organisers and La Casa Invisible later accepted collective responsibility for the controversy over the installation; the review says they removed it after protests from neighbours and on social media. These details explain how an artwork at the centre became attached to the party in the circulating claim. [S1: “Esta información falsa ya se publicó en 2017 en varios medios digitales y Podemos Málaga negó las acusaciones a través de su cuenta de Facebook. El origen de esta implicación entre la formación que lidera Iglesias y el centro social malagueño está en un tuit de un miembro de Ciudadanos, que interpretaba ese lugar como ‘la casa de Podemos Málaga’. Las imágenes que vemos en la fotografía corresponden en realidad a una exposición artística llamada La Guerra. Espacios-tiempos del conflicto, organizada en La Casa Invisible.”] [S1: “En su día, la imagen y la propia instalación de la bandera ya fue objeto de polémica, hasta el punto de que los organizadores de la exposición optaron por retirarla ante las protestas vecinales y en redes sociales. Los responsables de La Casa Invisible y la exposición publicaron un comunicado conjunto, en el que asumían ‘colectivamente’ la responsabilidad por la polémica.”]

NewtralPolitics & government

El expresidente Aznar se salta el confinamiento para volver a Madrid a realizar una conferencia

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned José María Aznar supposedly travelling to Madrid during confinement to give a series of conferences. The review identifies the event behind the reports as a session of the Leadership Classroom run by the Instituto Atlántico de Gobierno and the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria’s postgraduate school. The session also included Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso and UFV professor Florentino Portero. The review says Aznar announced it on Facebook as a new online session, scheduled to begin on May 11 at 18:00, and that footage on YouTube shows him opening the conference. The decisive point is the reported location of Aznar when he spoke. Newtral says it contacted both the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria and the FAES Foundation, which Aznar chairs; both told the outlet that he participated from his residence in Guadalmina, in Marbella, Málaga. The article also says Aznar and his wife, Ana Botella, had lived there since before the state of alarm was decreed. This evidence describes an online appearance from Marbella, not travel to Madrid for the conference.

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has paid money to daily wage workers to take part in the famers’ movement

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video circulating during the farmers’ protest in New Delhi that purported to show Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) paying daily-wage workers to join the movement. Vishvas News concluded that the video was old and did not show participation in the ongoing farmers’ movement. Its review identifies the footage as showing an AAP rally in Hisar, Haryana, rather than the protest described in the post. To trace the footage, the review says it extracted keyframes using InVID and searched them with Google reverse image search. It found the video in a tweet by Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra, described as posted on 26 March 2018 and identifying the scene as Kejriwal’s Haryana rally. The review also says Aajtak and inkhabar.com reported it as footage from AAP’s Hisar rally. These findings undermine the post’s presentation of the clip as evidence from the later farmers’ movement. The review reports that AAP denied paying participants: leader Deepak Bajpai called the allegations baseless, and it also cites a tweet by AAP leader Aarti refuting them. The evidence presented establishes that the video was misattributed to the farmers’ movement; it does not independently establish whether workers were paid at the earlier Hisar rally. The review’s conclusion is that the viral post was false, based on the clip’s age and its unrelated event context.