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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

El 91,4% de la ciudadanía apoya al Gobierno y alcanzar un gran acuerdo ante la crisis

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim attributed to the PSOE combined two ideas: that 91.4% of citizens favored supporting the Government and that they favored reaching a broad agreement during the economic and labor crisis. Newtral examined the CIS question underlying the 91.4% figure and found that it asked respondents whether, after the COVID-19 crisis, special effort should be made to reach broad agreements on the economic and labor crisis, or whether each party should instead put forward its own alternatives. The question did not ask about supporting the Government. According to the review, 91.4% chose the option favoring efforts to reach broad agreements. A further 6.2% preferred each party to present its own alternatives, and 0.5% said the answer depended on circumstances. Those figures support a statement about preferences for agreements, but not the added claim that respondents were backing the Government. The review therefore identifies the PSOE’s wording as an interpretation that goes beyond what the poll response measured. Newtral also considered separate PSOE statements about confidence in the Government and evaluations of political leaders. It reports that the CIS question behind the 97.3% figure asked whether measures to combat COVID-19 were necessary, not whether respondents supported the Government. The review also distinguishes ratings of what leaders were saying and doing about COVID-19 from approval of the leaders themselves. These are separate poll questions and do not alter what the 91.4% response measured.

NewtralPolitics & government

Las fotos de Rajoy saltándose el confinamiento son de diciembre de 2019

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned images of Mariano Rajoy exercising near his home that laSexta broadcast from April 14, 2020. Messages circulating online said the images were actually from December 29. The review says the images were current and were taken during the state of alarm, rather than in December 2019. The review describes checks of the images’ dates using camera metadata and details visible in photographs. Metadata for the first photographs showed they were taken early on Sunday, April 12. For later images, a photograph taken from inside a taxi showed Rajoy in the background; the taxi driver was wearing a mask, and taxi records helped establish the date. The review says the taxi’s dispatch number matched the ticket for the journey, which displayed April 14. As a further check on the April 14 images, the review cites metadata from the mobile phone of laSexta journalist Joaquin Castellón, who conducted the investigation. It says that image was also taken on April 14. Together, the described checks support the review’s conclusion that the broadcast images were from the confinement period, not December 29.

NewtralPolitics & government

Imagen de Pablo Casado leyendo un libro del revés

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined an image circulating online that appeared to show Pablo Casado, then president of the Partido Popular, holding Yuval Noah Harari’s *21 Lessons for the 21st Century* upside down. The review says the image was manipulated. Its visual check was that, if the book were actually upside down as depicted, its cover would be on Casado’s right, not on his left. The article identifies the image’s source as a photograph from El País’s article “Encadenados a la videoconferencia,” published on April 7, 2020, about Spanish political leaders’ routines and adaptation to COVID-19 confinement. The review therefore distinguishes the original photograph from the altered version circulating online.