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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

TRS MLA Harish Rao set to join BJP.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a post shared on Facebook linking to a newspaper article and asserting that Harish Rao, a TRS MLA, was going to join the BJP. FACTLY examined the linked article and reported that its ending included a warning for readers not to take the story seriously: “readers are advised to remember this is April Fool’s Day.” That disclaimer directly changes how the article’s purported announcement should be understood: it was presented as an April Fool prank, not a genuine report of a planned party switch. The review also reports that Harish Rao responded on his official Twitter account, calling the article “fake news” and asking the outlet that published it to apologize. The excerpt does not reproduce the tweet or identify the newspaper, so it supports describing these as FACTLY’s reported findings, rather than independently verifying the post or the response. FACTLY’s conclusion rests on the April Fool’s disclaimer in the linked article and its account of Rao’s response. The review states that Harish Rao was not joining the BJP and characterized the circulating claim as the prank’s misleading implication.

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Rahul Gandhi speech on Cauvery Water Issue

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The review investigated a viral video attributed to Rahul Gandhi that purported to show him saying that if the BJP won in Karnataka, it would give Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. It describes a presentation that used a Puthiya Thalaimurai logo and breaking-news music, followed by footage of Gandhi speaking Hindi with a Kannada translation. The post was shared during the 2019 election period, but the underlying speech was from his campaign in Chamarajanagar during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election. [S1] The review examined the video’s branding and provenance. It reports that Puthiya Thalaimurai’s logo disappeared when Gandhi appeared, and that the video was not shared from the broadcaster’s official Facebook or YouTube accounts. Using a frame from the video in reverse-image searches, the reviewers found a matching speech on Gandhi’s YouTube channel. They also traced the edited footage, carrying a “Hindustan News” logo, to videos posted by the Politicalhunt YouTube channel. The review says the Politicalhunt video uploaded on March 27, 2018, matched the circulating clip at the 2:10 mark. [S1] The decisive issue was what Gandhi actually said. The review’s account of a Hindi- and Kannada-speaking listener’s translation says Gandhi was criticizing Narendra Modi for lecturing about corruption while sharing a stage with B. S. Yediyurappa and four ministers from Yediyurappa’s cabinet. It specifically says the footage contains no mention of Cauvery water. The review concludes that the video was edited and presented misleadingly: Gandhi’s speech about corruption was recast as a statement about releasing water to Tamil Nadu, and Puthiya Thalaimurai branding and audio were used without the broadcaster having published the video. [S1]

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim : Time magazine published cartoon against Rahul Gandhi

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The claim concerned a cartoon circulating online that appeared to show Rahul Gandhi and was presented as a TIME magazine image criticizing Congress. Fact Crescendo’s review says the viral post claimed TIME had exposed Congress as supporting terrorism, and that the cartoon’s image of Rahul Gandhi appeared to have been altered. The review investigated the image’s provenance rather than treating the cartoon’s attribution as established. The review reports using Google reverse-image search and says it found the original image and related reporting. It identifies the cartoon as having first appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2012, and says the viral version had been altered to substitute Rahul Gandhi’s face. It also notes that a similar version had previously circulated with Narendra Modi’s face, falsely presented as though it had appeared in TIME. These findings support the conclusion that TIME did not publish the cartoon about Rahul Gandhi. The review separately searched for the alleged accompanying news report and says it found no report matching the claim. It describes the political debate around Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s remarks about terrorism and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response as context for the viral post, while concluding that this context did not make the cartoon or its attribution genuine.