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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

Drei Monate nach dem Besuch von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel in Neu-Delhi macht im Netz weiterhin die Behauptung die Runde, Indien erhalte aus Deutschland ohne Gegenleistung einen siebenstelligen Betrag: "1 Milliarde verschenkt Merkel an Indien", heißt in einem Beitrag der sogenannten Gelbwesten Deutschland.

Publisher’s rating: Die Bundesregierung stellt Indien den Betrag als zinsgünstiges Darlehen zur Verfügung, nicht als Geschenk. Es geht um den Ausbau umweltfreundlicher Verkehrsmittel.

The claim concerned a post on the Facebook page “Gelbwesten Deutschland” saying that Merkel had given India one billion euros. The dpa review describes the funding as part of a partnership to improve urban infrastructure and reduce severe smog in Indian cities. It says the planned measures included replacing diesel vehicles with 500 electric buses. The review does not describe the funding as an unconditional transfer. To establish the terms of the arrangement, dpa reports that a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development confirmed support of one billion euros for green urban mobility infrastructure in India over 2019–2023. The spokesperson said the money was not being given away: it was to be provided through KfW Development Bank as a repayable loan with reduced interest. These details directly contradict the post’s characterization of the amount as a gift, while identifying the environmental-transport purpose and repayment terms reported by the ministry.

NewtralPolitics & government

Pablo Iglesias va a comprar el pan en coche oficial

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a photograph circulated with the headline that Pablo Iglesias had been caught going to buy bread in an official car. Newtral’s investigation says the image did not show that activity: it was taken when Iglesias went to a funeral home in Madrid to pay his respects to filmmaker José Luis Cuerda. The article identifies the location as the Tanatorio de La Paz and the occasion as the wake for Cuerda. To establish the photograph’s context, the investigation reports using a reverse-image search. It says that search led to the photograph’s publication in El Mundo, credited to photojournalist Juanjo Sacristán, on 6 February 2020. The accompanying caption said Iglesias had gone the previous day to the funeral home, where friends and family were saying goodbye to Cuerda, who had died at 72. That provenance and contemporaneous caption contradict the circulated claim about a bread-shopping trip. The article’s conclusion is specific to what the photograph depicts: it documents Iglesias travelling to the wake, not going to buy bread. The supplied excerpt does not provide independent evidence about his other travel or shopping, so no broader claim about those activities follows from this image.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Rahul Gandhi Salutes National Flag in left hand

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a viral image presented as showing Rahul Gandhi saluting the Indian national flag with his left hand. The accompanying post used the image to accuse him of not knowing the proper hand for a salute. The investigation says it suspected the image had been flipped, noting that Gandhi’s shirt pocket appeared on the right side: “ராகுல் காந்தியின் சட்டை பாக்கெட் வலது பக்கத்தில் இருப்பதுபோல உள்ளது. இந்த புகைப்படமும் பார்க்க ஃபிளிப் செய்யப்பட்ட புகைப்படம் போலவே தெரிந்தது.” To check the image, the reviewers used reverse-image search, including Yandex, and found an original photograph attributed to the Associated Press. They report that India TV identified it as a photograph of Gandhi saluting at an Independence Day event at the Congress party headquarters in 2011: “இந்தியா டி.வி வெளியிட்டிருந்த செய்தியில், 2011ம் ஆண்டு காங்கிரஸ் கட்சித் தலைமை அலுவலகத்தில் நடந்த சுதந்திர தின விழாவில் ராகுல் காந்தி தேசியக் கொடிக்கு மரியாதை செலுத்தினார் என்று குறிப்பிட்டிருந்தனர். இந்த புகைப்படத்தை ஏ.பி செய்தி ஊடகம் எடுத்ததாக குறிப்பிட்டிருந்தனர்.” The reviewers also compared the viral image with video from the event. Although the video did not show the salute itself, they say people positioned to Gandhi’s left in the image appeared on his right in the video, supporting the conclusion that the image had been mirrored. Their account says the AP photograph shows Gandhi saluting with his right hand and concludes that the circulated left-hand image was flipped: “ஏ.பி செய்தி நிறுவனம் வெளியிட்டிருந்த புகைப்படத்தில் ராகுல் காந்தி வலது கையால் மரியாதை செலுத்துவது தெளிவாகியுள்ளது.”

NewtralPolitics & government

Las imágenes de Delcy Rodríguez en Argentina que se difunden como si fueran en España

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined images circulating as if they showed Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez arriving at Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain. The review places the images amid reports about her meeting with Spain’s José Luis Ábalos, but says the footage was neither recent nor filmed in Spain. Its central finding is that the images were made in Argentina in 2016, so they do not show the alleged arrival at Madrid-Barajas. For the images’ provenance, the review points to a post by the Venezuelan Embassy in Argentina on Twitter. It also lists the Venezuelan Embassy in Spain’s Twitter account and the BBC among its sources. The excerpt does not reproduce the referenced post or explain a frame-by-frame comparison, so the evidence available here supports reporting what Newtral identified as the images’ origin, but not additional details about how the footage was authenticated. The review adds that Rodríguez was in Argentina to attend the XI Extraordinary Meeting of the Common Market Council. That visit occurred amid a dispute over Venezuela’s Mercosur rights: the article says Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay had agreed shortly beforehand to suspend those rights, citing failure to meet the bloc’s requirements. This context distinguishes the 2016 Argentine airport images from the later claim that they showed her in Spain.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Modi shocked to Viplove Thakur questions in Parliament

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined a viral 1.14-minute video that combined footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha with footage of Congress member Viplove Thakur speaking in the Rajya Sabha. The accompanying post framed the edit as Modi being unable to answer questions in Parliament. The review’s central finding was that the footage came from different proceedings, rather than showing Thakur speaking while Modi struggled to respond. To identify the clips, the review compared the montage with full-length recordings. It reports finding Modi’s Lok Sabha footage in his official YouTube speech responding to the motion thanking the President for her address. Modi spoke there on February 6, 2020, from 12:38 p.m. to 2:18 p.m.; the review says the shot of him standing with his hands behind his back appears at 24:40 in that recording. It separately located Thakur’s Rajya Sabha speech on Rajya Sabha TV’s YouTube channel, where she spoke from 2:36 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. that day. The review says the Rajya Sabha recording showed the chamber at the start and three times during Thakur’s speech, without Modi visible; it also reports that the ruling-party seats were mostly empty and Modi was not in the front row. It found that Modi spoke in the Rajya Sabha later that day, beginning at 5:14 p.m. The review therefore concluded that the montage joined Modi’s earlier Lok Sabha footage to Thakur’s separate Rajya Sabha speech, creating a misleading impression that he was present during her remarks and unable to answer her.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Former President Fakhruddin Ali family living in a tent

Publisher’s rating: False

A viral photo showed an older man and woman with a young child beside a temporary tent. Its accompanying claim identified them as the family of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and presented the image as evidence of their living conditions. Fact Crescendo investigated whether the pictured people were his relatives; it concluded that the identification was wrong. The review reports that 426 families were evicted in Assam in December, and their homes were demolished. It says the photo came from coverage of that eviction, in the Chotia area of Biswanath district, where the affected families were described as having been removed because they had not voted for local BJP legislator Padma Hazarika. The review also notes that the families were not identified in that coverage as relatives of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. To trace the image, the investigators say they used reverse-image search and found it in an India Tomorrow report. They then checked Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s website and Facebook coverage of assistance to the displaced families. The review says the person in the photo was identified as Mohammad Ameen, an official of that organisation, not a member of the former president’s family. It also reports that searches about the relatives found them in Kamrup district, a different part of Assam. These findings support the conclusion that the photo documents displaced people in Assam, not the former president’s family living in a tent.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: 79 per cent Indians supporting Modi after CAA

Publisher’s rating: Partly False

The claim concerned a social-media graphic attributed to India Today and C-Voter. It purported to show that, after India enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 79% of people would vote for Narendra Modi to be prime minister again. The review describes the graphic’s question as whether people would vote for Modi again, with 79% answering yes and 21% no, and says a Facebook post shared it on February 7, 2020. The key issue was not simply whether a poll about the CAA existed, but whether this particular result and graphic came from the named pollsters and supported the claim about Modi. The review says its checks raised doubts about the graphic itself: it found spelling errors in the Tamil text and an apparent edited area where “No” appeared. It then searched for reporting on an India Today–C-Voter poll conducted after the CAA and says it found no such report. Instead, it identified an ABP News–C-Voter survey reporting 62% support for the CAA. That survey addressed support for the law, not whether respondents would vote for Modi, so it could not substantiate the graphic’s 79% claim. The review also reports that India Today’s C-Voter coverage did not support the graphic’s account: it found a poll indicating BJP losses if an election were held then, and an older India Today graphic from 2013 with different responses to a question about Modi as prime-ministerial candidate. It concludes that the circulating graphic was edited and that the asserted post-CAA India Today–C-Voter poll was not established. The evidence therefore contradicts the claim that the named poll showed 79% support for Modi after the CAA, while distinguishing that claim from a separate survey about support for the CAA itself.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Viplove Thakur making Modi silent with her speech in the Parliament.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim links footage of Congress MP Viplove Thakur speaking in the Rajya Sabha with footage of Narendra Modi standing silently, suggesting that her speech silenced him. FACTLY reports that the visuals came from different chambers: Thakur’s speech was filmed in the Rajya Sabha, while the shots of Modi were taken in the Lok Sabha. The review says the video’s editing therefore creates a misleading impression that they were together during her speech. To check whether Modi was present, the review says it examined Thakur’s speech on the Rajya Sabha YouTube channel and its transcript on the Rajya Sabha website. It reports that she began speaking about the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address at 2:36 pm and that Modi was absent from his seat during her speech. The review also notes that the Prime Minister’s seat is the second one reserved on the right side of the Chair. The review says Rajya Sabha videos show Modi entered the chamber at 5:11 pm, while Ramdas Athawale was speaking, and began his own speech at 5:14 pm. It concludes that Thakur was referring to the Modi government, not addressing Modi in the chamber, and that he was not present in the Rajya Sabha while she spoke. The footage does not establish that her speech made him silent.