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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

I tre governatori più amati d’Italia sono della Lega

Publisher’s rating: Vero

The claim concerned Matteo Salvini’s statement on May 14, 2019, on the television programme Porta a porta: that Italy’s three most popular governors belonged to his party, the Lega. The review identifies the 2019 Governance Poll, published by Il Sole 24 Ore and conducted by Noto Sondaggi, as the likely source for Salvini’s figures. The poll measured support for each region’s incumbent governor, rather than asking people to choose among governors nationally or directly rate how much they liked them. [S1: “Il 14 maggio 2019, Matteo Salvini – ospite a Porta a porta – ha dichiarato che «i tre governatori più amati d’Italia» sono esponenti del suo partito.”; “Dal momento che i risultati sono in linea con quelli rivendicati da Matteo Salvini, possiamo supporre che sia questa la fonte della sua dichiarazione.”; “Nel Governance Poll, chiarisce lo stesso Sole 24 Ore, al cittadino è stato chiesto, con possibilità di risposta affermativa o negativa (sì o no), se in un prossimo futuro il suo voto sarebbe «a favore o contro l’attuale presidente della [sua n.d.r.] regione».”] The poll’s reported top three were Veneto’s Luca Zaia at 62 per cent, Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s Massimiliano Fedriga at 51.1 per cent, and Lombardy’s Attilio Fontana at 49.2 per cent. The review says all three were Lega figures, so the party affiliation and the order of the top three support the substance of Salvini’s claim. [S1: “Le regioni in cui gli italiani hanno espresso il più alto consenso per i propri governatori sono il Veneto, il Friuli-Venezia Giulia e la Lombardia.”; “Queste regioni hanno come governatori rispettivamente Luca Zaia (con un gradimento al 62 per cento), Massimiliano Fedriga (51,1 per cento), e Attilio Fontana (49,2 percento).”; “In effetti, come rivendicato da Matteo Salvini, tutti e tre i governatori sono esponenti della Lega.”] The review also identifies limits on what the poll covered: four regions were excluded, and some respondents did not give a definite answer. Those qualifications matter when interpreting the result as a nationwide ranking, but the reported top three and their party affiliations match the claim as stated. [S1: “Quattro regioni sono escluse dal sondaggio.”; “In media, l’8 per cento non ha risposto alla domanda, mentre il 24 per cento dei partecipanti si è dichiarato indeciso.”; “Il podio è tutto della Lega, con Zaia, Fedriga e Fontana che si aggiudicano il primo, il secondo e il terzo posto.”]

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Imran Khan supported Modi for India's PM

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a Facebook post that paired a photograph of Narendra Modi with a News 7 report about Imran Khan, and described Modi as “Pakistan’s prime minister’s blessed candidate.” The post was shared by the Facebook group Support Thirumurugan Gandhi on April 10. The review’s central question was whether the News 7 report or Khan’s remarks supported the stronger assertion that he was backing Modi’s election victory. S1 describes the post and its contents as: “Support Thirumurugan Gandhi என்ற ஃபேஸ்புக் குழு கடந்த ஏப்ரல் 10ம் தேதி இந்த பதிவை வெளியிட்டுள்ளது. இதில், பிரதமர் மோடியின் புகைப்படத்தையும், பாகிஸ்தான் பிரதமர் இம்ரான் கான் பற்றி நியூஸ் 7 தொலைக்காட்சி வெளியிட்ட செய்தியையும் இணைத்து பகிர்ந்துள்ளனர்.” To check the attribution, the reviewer searched for the News 7 report and found a source for it, then searched in English for coverage of Khan’s interview with international media. The review says the reports described Khan as saying that a BJP return to power could increase the prospect of peace talks, while a Congress government would not act boldly on Kashmir. It also says the reports and video evidence it found described his remarks as relating to resolving the Kashmir issue, not as an endorsement of Modi. S1 states: “நமக்குக் கிடைத்த செய்தி, வீடியோ ஆதாரங்கள் அனைத்திலும், பாஜக மீண்டும் ஆட்சிக்கு வந்தால், காஷ்மீர் விவகாரத்தை பேசி தீர்க்க வாய்ப்பு ஏற்படும் என்று இம்ரான் கூறியதாகவே குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.” The distinction is between discussing which party’s government might create better conditions for talks over Kashmir and expressly supporting Modi’s election victory. The review says it found no report that Khan had said he supported Modi’s win, and concludes the Facebook post misrepresented the meaning of his remarks. Its account of the missing endorsement is: “எந்த இடத்திலும், பிரதமர் மோடி வெற்றிபெறுவதற்கு, ஆதரவு தெரிவிப்பதாக, இம்ரான் கான் கூறினார் என்று குறிப்பிடப்படவில்லை.”

Le MondePolitics & government

"La démocratie représentative est là pour éviter que des gens qui savent à peine écrire conduisent le destin du pays", aurait déclaré la députée LRM des Yvelines.

Publisher’s rating: FAUX

The claim attributes to Aurore Bergé, a La République en marche deputy for Yvelines, a statement opposing the citizens’ initiative referendum and saying representative democracy prevents people who “barely know how to write” from directing the country. The review examines that specific quotation, which circulated in a Facebook post attributed to the page Anonymous France on Wednesday, May 15. The article reports that the posts spreading the quotation did not say when or where Bergé supposedly made the remarks. It says she had never spoken of “people who barely know how to write,” and traces the phrase instead to a parody Twitter account, “Christophe Castagnette” (@ccastanette). The review describes the subsequent spread as a case in which other sources relayed the phrase while implying it might be genuine. On the evidence reported, the attributed statement is fabricated, not a documented remark by Bergé.

FACTLYPolitics & government

In 2012, when the ‘Time’ magazine called Manmohan Singh as “The Underachiever”, BJP has condemned it. But, in 2019, when the same magazine called PM Modi as “India’s Divider in Chief”. Congress party is backing the foreign media.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post contrasted BJP’s response to Time’s 2012 “The Underachiever” description of Manmohan Singh with the Congress party’s response to the magazine’s 2019 description of Narendra Modi as “India’s Divider in Chief.” FACTLY examined the BJP side of that comparison: whether the party supported Singh when Time criticized him. The review says it searched Google using the keywords “BJP supports Manmohan the underachiever” and consulted newspaper reporting, including India Today, The Hindu and Business Line. It reports that BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi used the Time story to criticize Singh and his government. Prasad also demanded Singh’s resignation, according to the review. The review quotes Prasad describing Singh’s government as “the most corrupt” and Naqvi saying Singh was “not an achiever.” The evidence also shows why the party’s position should not be conflated with that of every BJP politician: the review identifies Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president Prabhat Jha as supporters of Singh. It concludes that BJP as a party used the Time story to attack him, while only a few leaders defended him. That contradicts the post’s characterization of BJP as having supported Singh. The excerpt does not substantiate the separate assertion that Congress backed foreign media; its reported evidence and conclusion concern BJP’s response to the 2012 coverage.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Amit Shah had said that Ram Mandir would never be constructed and Modi had said that to gain the confidence of Hindus, it was necessary for him to kill Muslim farmers.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim circulated with a newspaper-article clip that purported to quote Amit Shah saying the Ram Mandir would never be built and Narendra Modi saying that killing Muslim farmers was necessary to gain Hindus’ confidence. FACTLY investigated the authenticity of that clip and those specific alleged statements. The review reports that searches for news about the alleged remarks found no information in either print or broadcast media. It also compared the circulating clip with a similar clip making claims about Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav: the two clips had the same claims, with only some word placement changed. The review says searches for those alleged remarks also found no supporting information. On that basis, FACTLY concluded that the clips were digitally created and that the claims were not true. The excerpt does not describe a forensic examination of the image or identify the newspaper supposedly carrying the statements, so the conclusion should be understood as grounded in the reported media searches and comparison with the similar circulating clip.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Modi was present in the photograph of Indira Gandhi.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a Facebook post that presented a photograph of Indira Gandhi and Kannada actor Raj Kumar as showing Narendra Modi alongside them. FACTLY’s review identifies the image at issue and says the allegation was that Modi was also present in it. The review’s conclusion is that the image was altered, rather than an authentic photograph of Modi with Indira Gandhi and Raj Kumar. [S1]