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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

FACTLYPolitics & government

Communists in Kerala attacking BJP & RSS bike rally in support of CAA & NRC.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a video as showing Communists in Kerala attacking a peaceful BJP and RSS bike rally in support of the CAA and NRC. FACTLY’s review identifies the footage as an older video connected to the Sabarimala dispute, not the CAA and NRC issues. That identification means the video does not establish the event or cause claimed in the post. To trace the footage, the review says it searched YouTube using the keywords “Kerala bike rally obstructed” and found the same video, uploaded on 4 January 2019, with a title linking it to the Sabarimala women’s entry issue. A Google search then led to the video on the Times of India’s YouTube channel, where it was timestamped 3 January 2019. The Times of India video description, as quoted in the review, locates the rally at Edappal in Kerala’s Malappuram district and says the Sabarimala Karma Samithi had called a statewide hartal to protest the entry of young women to the temple. The review therefore connects the footage to that Sabarimala-related rally and protest, rather than to a rally about CAA and NRC.

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

1975 का आपातकाल। इंदिरा गांधी दिल्ली पुलिस के साथ जेएनयू में घुसीं और सीपीआई नेता सीताराम येचुरी की पिटाई की, जो उस वक्त जेएनयू स्टूडेंट यूनियन के प्रेसिडेंट थे। इंदिरा गांधी ने येचुरी को इस्तीफा देने के लिए मजबूर किया और उनसे माफी मंगवाई। इसे कहते हैं कम्युनिस्टों के साथ सख्ती से निपटना। अमित शाह उनके (इंदिरा गांधी) सामने संत लगती हैं।

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Amit Shah revealed his opinion to ban SDPI

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The claim concerned a social-media post attributing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah a statement that he would immediately ban the SDPI and would not listen to others’ opinions. The post used a purported Puthiya Thalaimurai news card. Fact Crescendo’s review investigated whether that card was authentic and whether Shah had made the claimed remarks; it concluded that the card and claim were false. The review compared the circulating card with Puthiya Thalaimurai’s cards from January 3, 2020, the date shown on the viral image. It reported finding a different card featuring Shah that day, about the Citizenship Amendment Act and opposition criticism, and no other Puthiya Thalaimurai card that day about the SDPI. It also noted that the viral card’s Tamil font differed from the outlet’s card. To check the card’s provenance, the review says it contacted an administrator of Puthiya Thalaimurai’s online division, who confirmed it was fake. The review also searched for reports that Shah had commented on banning the SDPI and said it found none. On those checks, it judged the attributed quotation and the card to be false; the excerpt does not provide further detail about the search conducted.

NewtralPolitics & government

Mariano Rajoy se tomó, creo recordar, unos 10 días [en nombrar a sus ministros]

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Ander Gil, the Socialist Group’s spokesperson in the Senate, said that it was normal for presidents to take some days to announce their government and recalled that Mariano Rajoy had taken “unos 10 días.” He made the remark on 8 January 2020, during discussion of Pedro Sánchez’s expected timetable for announcing ministers. The review tested the comparison by examining the dates of Rajoy’s appointments and announcements, using publication dates in Spain’s Official State Gazette (BOE) as its basis. For Rajoy’s first government, the review says the BOE published his appointment on 21 December 2011; he announced his government that same day, and its composition appeared in the BOE the next day. For his 2016 government, it records Rajoy’s appointment in the BOE on 31 October and his announcement of the executive on 3 November. Those episodes therefore do not support a ten-day interval. The review also gives historical comparisons: it says that since Spain’s transition to democracy the longest interval before ministers were named and published in the BOE was four days, while presidents generally took one or two days on average. Gil’s team acknowledged that he had made a mistake, though it argued that the interval should be counted from the relevant investiture vote. The review says that even on that basis the interval did not exceed a week. Its assessment is thus grounded in dated appointment and government-announcement records, with the counting convention noted as context.

NewtralPolitics & government

Pablo Iglesias se ha comprado un coche por 90.000 euros

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim was that Pablo Iglesias had bought a Porsche Cayenne for €90,000. Newtral identifies it as a viral post that had been recirculated without the context that it began as a joke. The original post appeared on Moncloa.com, where a notice before the article text said it did not reflect reality and was written for Día de los Santos Inocentes. Newtral says screenshots circulated with the headline and an accompanying photomontage, making the joke look like real news. The review also notes that other websites repeated the story as if it were factual. The review distinguishes that claim from what Iglesias’s asset declaration actually establishes. According to Newtral, his latest declaration to the Congress of Deputies said he had disposed of his Dacia Sandero, valued at €10,000, and bought a new car in 2019. But the declaration did not specify the car’s model or price. It therefore does not support the specific assertion that the new car was a Porsche Cayenne costing €90,000. Newtral’s conclusion addresses that precise model-and-price claim, not whether Iglesias bought some new car.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Sitaram Yechury resigning and reading an apology letter in front of Indira Gandhi for protesting against emergency.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a social-media post about a specific photograph of Sitaram Yechury and Indira Gandhi. The post claimed that, during the 1975 Emergency, Gandhi came to JNU, forced Yechury to resign as the students’ union president, and made him read an apology for protesting. The review identifies the image and the alleged resignation and apology as the subject of its check: “Photo of Sitaram Yechury resigning and reading an apology letter in front of Indira Gandhi for protesting against emergency.” The review’s account of what the photograph shows is different: Yechury was reading a memorandum demanding that Gandhi resign as JNU’s chancellor, not apologizing or resigning himself. It also says the location was Gandhi’s residence rather than JNU. The article cites a Hindustan Times caption identifying the scene as Yechury reading a student memorandum to Gandhi that demanded her resignation as chancellor. The review places the photograph after the Emergency, not during it. It says the image was taken in September 1977, after Gandhi’s defeat in that year’s election; it also notes that the Emergency began in June 1975 and officially ended in March 1977. That chronology contradicts the post’s description of the scene as an incident during the Emergency. Taken together, the reported content of the memorandum, the location, and the date refute the post’s account of an apology and forced resignation.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: CAA support rally video held in Karnataka

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The review investigated a video shared as footage of a rally in Karnataka supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). It reports that the clip itself contains no announcement identifying a CAA event, rally, or public meeting; the CAA-rally description appeared in the accompanying post. The reviewer says the video was uploaded by “Virugai Gunaseelan Bjp” on January 7, 2020, and that users were sharing it with the Karnataka-rally description. To identify the footage, the review describes extracting still images with InVid and running a reverse-image search. It found the same video in an upload dated January 11, 2018, described as showing 500,000 people singing the national anthem. The reviewer then searched YouTube using related phrases and found a video described as showing 121,653 people singing; the review says its thumbnail appeared to match the clip, and checking the video confirmed it was the same footage. The review identifies the footage as a Sahara India Pariwar event in Lucknow on May 2, 2013, organized as a world-record attempt to sing India’s national anthem. It says the event included Sahara employees and that the footage was therefore misrepresented as a Karnataka CAA rally. The review’s conclusion is that the Facebook post was false.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Angela Merkel refusing to shake hands with Modi in the aftermath of National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached the video of Angela Merkel and Narendra Modi to the aftermath of India’s National Register of Citizens, alleging that Merkel refused to shake Modi’s hand. FACTLY’s investigation instead identified the footage as a joint press meet between them in 2015, rather than an incident connected to NRC. To check the clip, FACTLY searched YouTube for “Modi and Merkel meeting” and found footage on Narendra Modi’s YouTube channel showing the two in the same clothes as in the circulating clip. In the fuller video, after their joint speech, Modi offers his hand; Merkel walks away from her podium, gestures for him to move toward the India and Germany flags, and then poses with him for photographers while shaking hands. The edit omitted the movement toward the flags and the subsequent handshake. That truncation made the footage appear to show Merkel rejecting Modi, while the fuller recording documented a different sequence. FACTLY therefore concluded that the video did not support the claim that she refused his handshake in the aftermath of NRC.