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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

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Seeman, Thirumavalavan conducted meeting to destroy corporates

Publisher’s rating: PARTLY FALSE

The viral post showed a photograph of Thol. Thirumavalavan, Seeman and others, captioned as a meeting to discuss abolishing corporations. The review says the post was shared by Selvakumar P on January 31, 2020, and explains that the claim drew attention because the leaders had spoken against corporate culture, but the reviewer found no evidence that they had said they would destroy corporations or held such a meeting. The review reports searching Google for a meeting in Tamil Nadu involving Seeman and Thirumavalavan, without finding relevant news or posts. [S1: “இந்த பதிவை, செல்வக்குமார் பி என்பவர் 2020 ஜனவரி 31ம் தேதி வெளியிட்டுள்ளார்.”; “குறிப்பாக விடுதலைச் சிறுத்தைகள் தலைவர் தொல் திருமாவளவன், நாம் தமிழர் ஒருங்கிணைப்பாளர் சீமான் அப்படி ஏதும் கூறியுள்ளார்களா, ஆலோசனைக் கூட்டம் நடத்தினார்களா என்று ஆய்வு செய்தோம்.”; “ஆனால், அப்படி எதுவும் நமக்குக் கிடைக்கவில்லை. ஒரு சின்ன செய்தி, பதிவு கூட நமக்கு கிடைக்கவில்லை.”] To identify the photo’s actual setting, the reviewer used reverse-image search. The review says the image had appeared on the Naam Tamilar Katchi official page on June 2, 2018, with text identifying the gathering as a tribute to three people killed in the caste violence at Kachanatham. The cited post lists Thirumavalavan, Bharathiraja, Seeman and others among those attending. This provenance shows that the photograph documented a different event, not a meeting to destroy corporations. [S1: “இந்த படத்தை ரிவர்ஸ் இமேஜ் தேடலில் பதிவேற்றித் தேடினோம். அப்போது நாம் தமிழர் கட்சியின் அதிகாரப்பூர்வ பக்கத்தில் இந்த படத்தை 2018 ஜூன் 2ம் தேதி வெளியிட்டிருந்தது தெரியவந்தது.”; “கச்சநத்தம்: சாதியப் படுகொலையுண்ட மூவர் உடலுக்கு வீரவணக்கம் | திருமாவளவன், பாரதிராஜா, சீமான், ஜான்பாண்டியன், அமீர், இராம், வெற்றிமாறன், கோபி நயினார், சுரேஷ்காமாட்சி பங்கேற்பு.”] The review also notes that the original image did show a Tata Mineral Water bottle; it was not edited into the photograph. The post used that genuine detail to imply a corporate-abolition discussion, but the image’s documented connection to the Kachanatham tribute does not support that interpretation. The review’s conclusion is that the post paired a real image with misleading information. [S1: “நாம் தமிழர் கட்சி வெளியிட்டிருந்த பதிவில் உள்ள படத்தில் டாடா மினரல் வாட்டர் பாட்டில் இருந்தது. அது எடிட் செய்து வைக்கப்பட்டது இல்லை என்பதும் உறுதியானது.”; “இதன் அடிப்படையில், உண்மையான படத்துடன், தவறான தகவல் சேர்த்து வெளியிட்டிருப்பது உறுதி செய்யப்படுகிறது.”]

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Fake news card on AIADMK MP OP Raveendranath Kumar

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigated a Facebook post claiming that AIADMK MP O.P. Ravindranath Kumar said that whoever came—including Prashant Kishor—would be defeated in the upcoming Assembly election, and that he would present the victory to Prime Minister Modi. It places the post amid discussion of Kishor’s appointment as an adviser to the DMK for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election and notes that Kumar was celebrating his birthday on February 3, 2020. To check whether such a report had actually appeared, the reviewers say they searched the official Thanthi TV Facebook page and found the genuine news item. They conclude that a Thanthi TV news card had been taken and falsely represented to spread the claim. The excerpt does not reproduce the genuine card’s text, so the comparison cannot be independently detailed from the supplied material.

NewtralPolitics & government

Polonia ha puesto carteles de “Zona libre de personas LGTB”

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns signs photographed in several Polish cities that read “Free LGBTI zone,” and posts said Polish authorities had put them up. Newtral’s review distinguishes those signs from official resolutions by municipalities and regions. It reports that Bartosz Staszewski, the Polish artist behind the signs, confirmed by email that they were part of his own art project, not a government project. The people pictured with the signs were members of the LGBT community, according to Staszewski. The project used the signs to draw attention to local declarations against “LGBT ideology” and to homophobia in Poland. The review says those declarations were initiatives approved by municipal or regional institutions, but were non-binding and symbolic. Thus, posts attributing the photographed signs themselves to authorities conflated an artist’s visual protest with separate local political declarations. Newtral also reports that Guy Verhofstadt shared a photograph and called on Polish authorities to remove the signs, apparently treating them as official; he deleted his tweet that same week. The review’s account therefore identifies both the source of the photographed signs and the distinction that the viral posts obscured.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Raveendranath Kumar MP called Anti-CAA protesters are dogs

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The claim concerned a purported Thanthi TV news card attributing to Theni AIADMK MP O.P. Raveendranath a statement that people opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act were “dogs” and should stop barking in India and move to Pakistan. The review says the card circulated on social media and identifies a Facebook post published on January 26, 2020. It also places the claim amid a separate incident: Raveendranath had condemned an attack on his car after he attended an AIADMK event in Bodinayakanur, Theni district. To check the attribution, the reviewers examined Thanthi TV’s Facebook page. They found a January 24 card about the MP, but it said he condemned the black-flag protest against him in Theni over the Citizenship Amendment Act; the review says the viral card had been edited from that genuine card. The review also reports that Thanthi TV’s online news division confirmed the viral card was false and, within hours of the reviewers’ inquiry, published its own explanation that the card was fake. The review further says it searched for reporting on Raveendranath’s statement about the incident and found reports from Dinathanthi and Dinamani, neither of which contained the alleged remark. It concludes that the attribution was false. The excerpt supports that conclusion through the original outlet’s different card, the outlet’s reported confirmation, and the absence of the statement in the cited coverage; it does not provide direct evidence of everything Raveendranath said at the event.

NewtralPolitics & government

Javier Maroto (PP) pactó sus presupuestos en Vitoria con Bildu

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a specific allegation made by government spokesperson María Jesús Montero: that Javier Maroto, then the PP mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, had agreed municipal budgets with Bildu. The review examined Maroto’s mayoral term, from June 2011 to June 2015, and distinguished budget agreements from other kinds of cooperation between the parties. The review says it checked publicly available municipal council minutes and consulted press representatives for both the PP municipal group and EH Bildu Gasteiz. It reports that Bildu never supported or negotiated Maroto’s budgets. The only budgets approved during his term were for 2013 and 2014, with PNV support; Bildu voted against both. The 2012 and 2015 budgets were carried over because the PP lacked sufficient support. The allegation appears to conflate those budget votes with other agreements. The review identifies cooperation between PP and Bildu on projects and municipal matters, including the bus station in 2011, dissolution of the Arich agency in 2012, and a 2014 proposal to open a Basque-language centre. It also describes an agreement on the IAE business tax in November 2014, later reduced by Maroto. These examples show cooperation, but the review’s account distinguishes them from approval of municipal budgets.