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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

Italia rebaja el número de políticos por la crisis del COVID-19

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a circulating claim that Italy had reduced its number of deputies and senators because of the COVID-19 crisis. The review says the social-media post presented the headline “La crisis del coronavirus rebaja en Italia el número de políticos” and cited a La Razón article about eliminating 230 deputies and 115 senators. Newtral’s central check was whether that cited report was actually recent and whether the reduction was caused by the pandemic. The review reports that searching La Razón’s website showed the article had been published on 10 October 2019, before the COVID-19 crisis. It describes the measure as a law approved by all parties to reduce the number of legislators starting in the next legislature. Under the measure, the Chamber of Deputies would go from 630 members to 400 and the Senate from 315 to 200. Newtral therefore identifies the viral presentation as decontextualized: the reduction was a pre-existing measure, not one introduced because of the coronavirus crisis. Its review explicitly distinguishes the measure’s existence from the claimed pandemic-related cause. The cited figures and the article’s earlier date support that distinction.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Pinarayi Vijayan lights candle on Modi call

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a social-media post implying that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had lit a candle in response to Prime Minister Modi’s call. It describes the post as using a photograph of Vijayan in a darkened room and says the accompanying text addressed Tamil communists. The review notes that the post did not explicitly say he had accepted Modi’s call, but that the image and wording conveyed that implication. The image had also appeared in coverage and online posts presenting it as a response to the call. To check the claim, the reviewers searched for reports about Vijayan’s home on the evening of April 5, 2020. They found reports that the lights were switched off at 9 p.m. and that household workers used flashlights, but said those reports came from a news agency and that they found no images. They also checked Vijayan’s Twitter account and found no post saying he had switched off lights or lit a candle. The decisive finding concerned the photograph’s earlier history: the review says its Malayalam fact-checking team identified it as dating to 2018, and that Kerala’s Information and Public Relations Department had published it that year. It connects the image to Earth Day, when Vijayan, his wife, daughter and grandson were pictured by candlelight after switching off the lights. Thus, the review concludes that the photo did not show Vijayan lighting a candle in response to Modi’s April 5, 2020 call.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Congress President’s approval is required to use funds from PMNRF

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media post asserting that Congress President’s approval was required to release money from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF). Its review distinguishes the fund’s earlier management arrangements from the authority described as current when the review was written. It reports that the PMNRF website assigned disbursement decisions to the Prime Minister, rather than requiring approval from the Congress President. The review says the Congress President had been a member of the committee formed when the fund was established in 1948. But membership in that earlier committee does not establish a current approval requirement: FACTLY reports that the website described disbursement as being at the Prime Minister’s discretion and in accordance with the Prime Minister’s directions. For the change in management, FACTLY cites a Delhi High Court judgment. As described in the review, the judgment records that in 1985 the managing committee entrusted the fund’s entire management to the Prime Minister, who could appoint a secretary. Taken together, the website information and the judgment account address the claim’s key point: the review found no requirement for the Congress President’s approval to disburse PMNRF funds.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Tamil Nadu BJP president Murugan did not ask people to donate their jewels

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a viral news card bearing Murugan’s photograph and attributed to Thanthi TV. It said that, in the national interest, people in Tamil Nadu should hand over their gold jewellery to the government. The review describes the card as circulating on social media and says that some viewers believed and shared it. The investigation first asked the BJP about the card. According to the review, party representatives said it was fake and that they had filed a police complaint. The fact-check then searched to determine whether Thanthi TV had actually published the card. It reports finding the relevant material on the broadcaster’s official Facebook page. That original card had a different message: Murugan was asking BJP members to send money to the Prime Minister’s relief fund. The review says the viral version was made by editing the Thanthi TV card, changing its message to claim that people should surrender jewellery. It identifies the source card as one Thanthi TV published on 6 April 2020. Thus, the evidence described in the review distinguishes the actual request for party members to donate money from the fabricated claim about the public handing over gold jewellery.

Pagella PoliticaPolitics & government

«[Con i “pieni poteri”] Orbán ha fatto una legge che, di fatto, tiene il nome di origine e il sesso di origine nei documenti delle persone transessuali che hanno fatto un percorso di transizione, anche di riattribuzione del sesso» (min. 0:40)

Publisher’s rating: Pinocchio andante

The claim concerns a statement by Italian parliamentarian Alessandro Zan in a video published on April 5 by the Democratic Party deputies’ official Facebook page. Zan said Orbán had used his “full powers” to make a law that would keep trans people’s original name and sex in their documents. The review separates the proposal’s substance from its legal status and how it was introduced: on March 31, the day after the Hungarian Parliament approved the emergency-powers law, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén presented a bill to Parliament. It was a proposal awaiting parliamentary consideration, not an enacted law or an executive decree. The review examined Article 33 of that bill, which proposed changing the rules for identity records. Under the proposed text, the recorded “gender” would refer to sex recorded at birth, defined by reference to primary sex characteristics and chromosomes, and the data could not subsequently be changed. The review says that, if approved, this could mean trans people would have an incorrect gender recorded on identity documents; it also notes the possible impact would extend beyond people who had undergone sex reassignment. The review’s conclusion is therefore qualified: it says the proposed change could harm trans people’s rights, but Zan was wrong to describe it as an already-made law and wrong to attribute it to Orbán’s emergency powers. The bill still had to be discussed and approved by Parliament. The review also notes that the Parliament remained open despite the new emergency powers. It concludes that Zan was wrong on at least two of the three points it assessed.

მითების დეტექტორიPolitics & government

ანტი-ლიბერალურმა გვერდმა “კარდჰუ” გამოაქვეყნა ვიდეო, წარწერით “საფრანგეთსა და იტალიაში მოსახლეობა ევროკავშირის დროშებს მასობრივად ყრის”.

Publisher’s rating: ვიდეო 2019 წლის 1 მაისს არის გადაღებული. კადრში ფრანგ ულტრა-ნაციონალისტი პოლიტიკოსი, მარინ ლე პენის პრო-რუსული პარტიის “ნაციონალური ფრონტი” ყოფილი წევრი ფლორიანი ფილიპო ჩანს, რომელიც საფრანგეთის ქალაქ ფორბაკის საფინანსო ცენტრის შენობიდან ევროკავშირის დროშას ხსნის. ვიდეო ფილიპომ საკუთარ ტვიტერზე გაავრცელა.

Myth DetectorPolitics & government

an anti-liberal page „კარდჰუ“ (“Kardhu”) published a video, captioned “People are massively getting rid of EU flags in France and Italy”. The video shows a footage of a man removig the EU flag to replace it with the flag of France.

Publisher’s rating: The video was recorded on May 1, 2019 and shows Florian Phillippot, a former member of Marine Le Pen’s pro-Russian party, National Rally, removing the EU flag from the Public Finance Center in Forbach, France. Phillippot disseminated the video via his own Twitter account.

สำนักข่าวอิศราPolitics & government

นายธนาธร จึงรุ่งเรืองกิจ หัวหน้าพรรคอนาคตใหม่ คือบุคคลในครอบครัว ‘จึงรุ่งเรืองกิจ’ รายที่ 4 ที่ปรากฏชื่ออยู่ในบัญชีผู้บริจาคเงินให้แก่พรรคอนาคตใหม่ นับตั้งแต่เดือน ต.ค. 2561-พ.ย. 2562

Publisher’s rating: ข่าวจริง