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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

Pagella PoliticaPolitics & government

«Ho sempre garantito il 50/50, da Presidente di Provincia, da Sindaco e da Presidente del Consiglio»

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The claim concerned Matteo Renzi’s record in three roles: president of the Province of Florence, mayor of Florence and prime minister. The review compared the gender balance of the teams serving in those roles, distinguishing the initial appointments from later changes and, for the national government, counting both ministers and the wider team of undersecretaries. It found that the claim was not true as an unqualified statement about all three roles. As prime minister, Renzi began with eight women among 16 ministers. That balance lasted only until 31 October 2014, when Paolo Gentiloni replaced Federica Mogherini as foreign minister; later resignations meant there were six women among 16 ministers by the end of the government. The review also looked beyond ministers: at the government’s start, women made up 27.5 per cent of the team when undersecretaries were included. As mayor, Renzi’s 2009 municipal cabinet did start evenly divided, with five women and five men, and a later reshuffle left women in the majority. The provincial record did not support an always-even balance either. When Renzi became president of the Province of Florence in 2004, three of the 12 assessors were women. The review says parity was reached only after a reshuffle in July 2006, when the provincial executive had six women among 12 assessors. Thus, the evidence supports parity at some particular starting points or after later changes, but not a consistent 50/50 balance across all three roles and the periods in which Renzi held them.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Imran Khan hiding on arrival of Modi at a meeting.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned an image said to show Imran Khan hiding when Narendra Modi arrived at a meeting, with a caption suggesting that everyone else stood to welcome Modi. FACTLY’s review identifies the image as a modified photograph, not a genuine scene of Khan at the meeting. It says the underlying photo showed Modi interacting with top global CEOs at the International Business Council event in Davos, held on the sidelines of the 2018 World Economic Forum meeting. To trace the image, the review reports using reverse image search. That led to a Financial Express article dated January 23, 2018, which displayed a similar image without Khan. FACTLY says the people in the original photograph were CEOs, not world leaders. Comparing the two images, the review concluded that a member’s face had been replaced with Khan’s, creating the misleading impression that he was present and hiding as Modi arrived.

DUBAWAPolitics & government

The present Nigerian government is facing the challenges of corruption head-on.

Publisher’s rating: False

The review assesses President Buhari’s assertion that his government was confronting corruption, rather than corruption in Nigeria in general. It reports that evidence from news publications had been submitted to anti-corruption agencies for prosecution but says those submissions had not produced results. The excerpt does not identify the publications or describe an independent review of their evidence, so it supports describing the review’s stated rationale, not treating each allegation as independently established. The examples given concern different levels of government and different alleged failures of accountability. The review says some past lawmakers did not comply with a Supreme Court order to return money allegedly stolen. It also says a 2016 auditor-general’s report indicted several ministries, departments and agencies for defrauding the government of billions of naira, but that the report was treated lightly and contracts continued to be awarded to the same agencies. The excerpt provides no names of the lawmakers or agencies and no details of the court order or report. For Kano, the review says that in 2018 the state’s then-governor, Umar Ganduje, was caught on video receiving dollars from a suspected contractor. It adds that the Kano government revoked the contract with that contractor in 2019, while the federal government failed to investigate the case. These are the review’s reported grounds for its conclusion: it contrasts claims of an anti-corruption effort with examples it presents as evidence of inadequate follow-through. The excerpt does not provide the video, identify the contractor, or detail any federal investigation beyond stating that one failed to occur.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Heißen Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders oder Ilhan Omar eigentlich ganz anders? In sozialen Medien kursiert eine Liste mit den angeblich wahren Namen von prominenten US-Demokraten.

Publisher’s rating: Die aufgelisteten elf US-Demokraten nutzen keine falschen Namen. In der Liste tauchen unter anderem Spitznamen, Geburtsnamen und Namen ehemaliger Partner auf.

The review examines a social-media list presenting supposed “true names” of 11 prominent US Democrats. It distinguishes between names that are actually used and the different reasons some other names appear in the list. The review also says that the nonprofit factcheck.org characterized the list as a conspiracy theory; the excerpt does not describe that organization’s checking methods. The examples show why the list can mislead. “Barry” was reportedly a nickname used by Barack Obama’s family, while “Soetoro” was the surname of his Indonesian stepfather. For Ilhan Omar, the review says “Ilhan Esmi” may stem from a spelling error and notes that she was formerly married to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. These details do not establish that either person used a false name. Other entries combine birth names, nicknames, full names and names acquired through marriage. The review says Kirsten Gillibrand was born Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik, was nicknamed Tina when young, and married Jonathan Gillibrand in 2001. Bill de Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm Jr and later changed his name; Beto O’Rourke’s name is Robert, with Beto as a nickname. The review further identifies Bernie Sanders as Bernard Sanders, Kamala Harris as Kamala Devi Harris, Pete Buttigieg as Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren’s birth surname as Herring, Cory Booker’s middle name as Anthony, and Eric Holder’s full name as Eric Himpton Holder Jr. Taken together, the entries do not support the implication that the listed politicians were using false names.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Nehru’s visit to the USA in 1954.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photo circulated as showing Jawaharlal Nehru during a 1954 visit to the United States. FACTLY examined the image in the context of social-media posts about Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. and the “Howdy Modi” event. Its investigation concluded that the photograph instead showed Nehru’s visit to the USSR in 1955. To identify the setting, the review reports using Yandex Reverse Image Search, which found the same photo on a website captioned as a 1955 meeting of Nehru and Indira Gandhi in Magnitogorsk, Russia. It also describes a location check: a user had provided a geolocation in the photo’s comments, and two background buildings were visible in street view at that location. The review then corroborates the date and broader itinerary with an Outlook Traveller article. It says that article placed Nehru’s USSR travel in June 1955, with his daughter accompanying him, and included Magnitogorsk among the stops. Together, the image match, identifiable location, and itinerary point to the USSR in 1955—not the USA in 1954.