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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

NewtralPolitics & government

Albert Rivera haciendo el saludo nazi

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a circulating photograph said to show Albert Rivera making a Nazi salute. Newtral says the image had circulated previously and describes it as showing two young people making the salute; the accompanying post identified the person on the left as Rivera and urged people to share the image.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Sarkaria Commission verdict on Karunanidhi

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a Facebook post claiming that Karunanidhi told the Sarkaria Commission that ants had eaten 20,000 bags of sugar. It reports that the post was shared by Mohan Raj on April 6 and says the fact-checkers investigated whether the alleged testimony took place. The review’s conclusion is that the story was fabricated: it says Karunanidhi never testified before Sarkaria and that this was an inquiry, not a court case that produced a verdict. The review says it checked the Commission’s report and found neither the phrase “scientific corruption” nor any allegation that ration sugar bags had gone missing. It describes the report as saying that wrongdoing had occurred but that reliable evidence was insufficient to establish it. The review also says the investigation concerned 28 allegations about the Karunanidhi government, its ministers and relatives, rather than the sugar-bag story. As further context, the review distinguishes the Commission’s original purpose—recommending improvements to relations between India’s central and state governments—from a separate inquiry into allegations against the Karunanidhi government. It says that inquiry followed a complaint by M. G. Ramachandran during the Emergency, and reports that Ramachandran later said he had relied on information compiled by a lawyer and did not know the details of the alleged corruption himself. These points explain why the post’s account of a specific testimony and verdict does not match the review’s description of the inquiry.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Arun Jaitley as Defence Minister used an Indian Navy Chopper to ferry his family to a wedding in Goa.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photograph said to show Arun Jaitley, while Defence Minister, using an Indian Navy helicopter to take his family to a wedding in Goa. FACTLY’s review instead identifies the image as relating to Jaitley’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir in May 2017. The review says he went to review the security situation and attend a GST Council meeting: “The photo was taken when Jaitley visited Jammu and Kashmir, in May 2017, to review the security situation and also, to attend the GST Council Meeting.” To investigate the image, FACTLY reports using Google Reverse Image Search. It found a similar photograph in an India Today article, which described Jaitley and then Army chief General Bipin Rawat arriving in Srinagar to review security in the valley. The review also notes that Jaitley was there for the GST Council meeting scheduled for May 18 and 19, 2017. These details place the photograph in an official visit, not the wedding trip asserted in the post. The review adds that Jaitley held both the Defence and Finance portfolios at the time. It distinguishes the photograph from separate news about alleged personal use of a Navy chopper in 2014, saying Jaitley dismissed those claims then. The review’s conclusion about the post’s image rests on the reported reverse-image match and the documented purpose and timing of the Srinagar visit.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Modi was paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and also his murderer Nathuram Godse.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a collage shared by Facebook users, which alleged that Modi paid tribute both to Mahatma Gandhi and to Gandhi’s murderer, Nathuram Godse. FACTLY’s review says the allegation relied on two separate images, and its conclusion turns on identifying the lower image: that image showed Modi paying respects to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, not Godse. The review therefore rejects the claim that the collage showed Modi paying tribute to Godse. To investigate the images, the review says it cropped the top and bottom portions of the collage and used Google Reverse Image Search. It reports that the top image was from Modi’s inauguration of the Mahatma Gandhi Museum in Rajkot, Gujarat, while the lower image was from Modi’s tribute to Savarkar at Parliament’s Central Hall. The review also points to AajTak’s YouTube news video covering the event and says it was uploaded on May 28, 2014. The key distinction is between the people shown in the two parts of the collage: the upper image related to Gandhi, but the lower image was identified as Savarkar, not Nathuram Godse. The review’s conclusion is specific to the collage and image identifications it describes; the supplied excerpt does not provide the archived post or the AajTak video itself for independent examination.

FACTLYPolitics & government

BJP flags were waved in Pakistan’s Balochistan province

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video of men and women waving BJP flags, presented as evidence that people in Pakistan’s Balochistan province supported the party and believed they could gain independence if Narendra Modi returned to power. The review says it investigated the authenticity of both the video and the accompanying claim, rather than assessing an unrelated flag-waving incident. It concludes that the video was from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, not Balochistan. (S1: “A Facebook post with a video showing men and women waving the BJP flag is being shared widely. The post claims that BJP flags were waved in Balochistan, a region in Pakistan”) To trace the footage, the review reports that it found a video linked in the post’s comments. Its Hindi title identified BJP candidate Sofi Yousuf filing his nomination in Anantnag, and the review says that video was uploaded on March 30, 2019. (S1: “A certain respondent even enclosed a video in the comments. The video has the title, ‘अनंतनाग से BJP उम्मीदवार Sofi Yousuf ने भरा नामांकन, लोगों में दिखा जबरदस्त जोश’. The upload date of this video was found to be March 30, 2019.”) The review then describes a separate comparison with the BJP Jammu and Kashmir unit’s Twitter account: an advanced search covering March 29 to April 1 located a March 31 tweet containing a truncated portion of the video. The tweet described Yousuf filing nomination papers in Anantnag with thousands of supporters. Together, the review’s reported video provenance and this matching, geographically specific post support its conclusion that the footage was misrepresented as being from Balochistan. (S1: “a tweet with the date March 31, 2019, that has the truncated part of the video was found. In the tweet, it was written that, BJP’s Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency Candidate Sh. Sofi Yousuf accompanied by thousands of supporters has filed nomination papers in Anantnag.”)

Aditi ParidaPolitics & government

Indian protesters burnt the Indian tricolour

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photograph circulated with a caption that implied the Indian flag was being burned in India. The review says the caption was shared by the Facebook page Kattar Hindu and that the image’s alleged Indian setting was what made the post appear “anti-national.” Its finding addresses the image’s location and the identity of the people shown, rather than disputing that a flag appears in the photograph. The review describes a reverse-image search that led to a Bloggers Speak page showing the same image under the headline “Pakistani protesters burn a poster of PM Narendra Modi.” It reports that the photograph was taken on 11 June 2015 at a protest in Multan, Pakistan. The caption there said Pakistani protesters were burning an Indian flag in response to comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The review says the Bloggers Speak image was attributed to AP Images and that the investigators found the image on AP Images as well. On that basis, it concludes that the people in the image were Pakistani protesters, not Indian people. The misleading element was therefore the implication that the scene occurred in India—not the identification of the object being burned as an Indian flag.