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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

Rahul Gandhi apologised in Rafale case

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

Fact Crescendo investigated a viral post claiming Rahul Gandhi had admitted to lying about the Rafale deal and apologised. The post paired his image with the purported words, “I lied in the Rafale issue” and “I apologise for that.” The review says the post was shared by a Facebook group called BJP Kanyakumari on April 22 and reports that it circulated among BJP supporters and Congress opponents. The review’s stated finding is that Gandhi did not make the claimed Rafale-lie apology. The review traces the apology claim to a separate legal proceeding. BJP politician Meenakshi Lekhi had filed a contempt case over Gandhi’s use of “Chowkidar chor hai” (“the watchman is a thief”) in connection with the Supreme Court’s handling of the Rafale matter. At a hearing on April 23, the lawyers disputed whether Gandhi had apologised: Lekhi’s lawyer said an expression of regret was not an apology, while Gandhi’s lawyer argued that his regret warranted dismissal of the case. The court then sought explanations from both sides. The decisive evidence described in the review is Gandhi’s affidavit, filed on April 29. It says he regretted that his remarks had been misunderstood, but, according to the review, it did not say he was apologising for lying about Rafale. The review concludes that the viral post conflated regret over the “Chowkidar chor hai” court-related remark with an admission and apology about the Rafale allegations. Its conclusion concerns the wording of the viral claim, not whether Gandhi’s political allegations about Rafale were true.

NewtralPolitics & government

El mensaje del pacto secreto entre PP, Cs y Vox para bajar las pensiones

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The message circulated before Spain’s 28 April 2019 general election. It claimed that the PP had dismissed an IT worker for revealing a secret agreement with Ciudadanos and VOX to cut pensions by 20% in 2020 and a further 10% in 2021. It urged pensioners to vote and forward the message. The review reports that the parties denied the alleged agreement and the story about the worker: the PP said none of it was real, VOX said there had been no contact, and Ciudadanos also called the message false. The review also reports that it found no media references indicating that such an agreement or dismissal had occurred. It notes that the same chain circulated with the alleged pact attributed instead to PSOE, Unidas Podemos and EH Bildu. That variant is relevant context: the text’s changing political attribution does not corroborate the version naming PP, Ciudadanos and VOX. On the election proposals, the review says that neither the PP nor Ciudadanos explicitly proposed pension cuts during that campaign, while VOX proposed a radical change to the pension system. This distinction matters: a proposal to change the system is not evidence of the specific secret pact or the precise cuts asserted in the message. The review’s stated conclusion is that the message is false.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Manmohan Singh had touched the feet of Sonia Gandhi.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing Manmohan Singh touching Sonia Gandhi’s feet. FACTLY reports that it checked the picture using Google Reverse Image search and found it in Getty Images. Getty’s caption identified the person touching Sonia Gandhi as a Congress representative at a national-level convention of elected office bearers of the Indian Youth Congress in New Delhi; it did not identify him as Singh.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Edappadi Palaniswamy speech on Sasikala family

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: True

The review examines a Facebook video presented as showing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy saying that he had never even seen members of Sasikala’s family. It reports that the post combined footage of him criticizing Sasikala’s family with older scenes of him campaigning for T.T.V. Dhinakaran and bowing at Sasikala’s feet. The review’s conclusion is that the footage is genuine, but the edit places authentic scenes from different occasions together in a way that can mislead viewers about their context. The article describes the video as having been posted on 28 September 2018 and shared 1.64 lakh times by the time of its report. (S1: “இதில், எடப்பாடி பழனிசாமி சசிகலா குடும்பத்தினரை விமர்சித்து பேசும் காட்சிகளும், டிடிவி தினகரனுக்கு ஆதரவாக எடப்பாடி பழனிசாமி பிரசாரம் செய்தது மற்றும் சசிகலா காலில் எடப்பாடி பழனிசாமி விழுந்து வணங்குவது உள்ளிட்ட காட்சிகளும் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளன.”) To check the footage, the investigators copied its URL and analyzed it with InVID. They then scrutinized the video’s setting: the stage identified the event as a 25 September 2018 protest meeting for Eelam Tamils, and the footage bore a Thanthi TV logo. They searched Thanthi TV’s YouTube page and found coverage of the statewide AIADMK protest, including a Salem meeting led by Palaniswamy. (S1: “அதில், வீடியோ உண்மைதான் என்ற விவரம் கிடைத்தது.”; “அது ஈழத்தமிழர்களுக்காக, கடந்த 2018, செப்டம்பர் 25ம் தேதியன்று நடைபெற்ற கண்டன பொதுக்கூட்ட நிகழ்வு பற்றியது என தெரியவந்தது.”; “தந்தி டிவியின் லோகோவும் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளது.”) The decisive comparison was that, at 2:05 in the longer video of the Salem meeting, Palaniswamy says the same words heard in the viral clip. The review therefore supports the authenticity of the speech footage, while explaining that the accompanying older images are from 2017, after Jayalalithaa’s death—not evidence that all the scenes occurred together. Its conclusion is that the viral video assembled genuine material but presented past events alongside the later speech. (S1: “இந்த வீடியோவின் 2.05 நிமிடத்தில், நாம் ஆய்வு செய்யும் வீடியோவில் இருப்பதை அப்படியே எடப்பாடி பழனிசாமி பேசுகிறார்.”; “இவை எல்லாம் ஜெயலலிதா மறைவிற்குப் பின், கடந்த 2017ம் ஆண்டு நடைபெற்ற சம்பவங்களாகும்.”; “பழைய சம்பவங்களை ஒன்றாக தொகுத்து, மேற்கண்ட வீடியோவை வெளியிட்டுள்ளனர்.”)