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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

Siamo la forza politica in Parlamento con il più alto numero di donne [...] e anche di laureati

Publisher’s rating: Nì

The claim combines two comparisons: which political force had the most women in Parliament and which had the most graduates. The review says the first part was supported by the figures it examined: the M5s had 96 women parliamentarians, both the highest total and a high share of its group, and it was the only group with more than 40 per cent women among its deputies. The education comparison was less straightforward. At the Chamber of Deputies, the M5s had the largest total of graduates—165, about 75 per cent of its deputies—but the review notes that it was also the largest party in that chamber. Comparing shares instead, Liberi e Uguali did better: nearly 86 per cent of its deputies had completed a university course successfully. The Senate comparison had an additional limitation: the Senate did not provide specific data on senators’ university careers. The review says it reworked partial information from Openpolis. On that basis, the M5s probably had the largest total of graduated senators, but not the largest proportion relative to its group; the Pd and Fratelli d’Italia appeared to have higher proportions. Thus, the women comparison held up, while the graduates claim depended on whether one compared totals or proportions and was uncertain for the Senate.

FACTLYPolitics & government

People chanted ‘Modi, Modi…’ and the leader shouted on them to stop.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing a crowd chant “Modi, Modi” after a speaker asks them to chant “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad,” with the speaker then telling them to stop. FACTLY identifies the speaker as Alpesh Thakor, a Congress MLA in Gujarat, and says the clip came from an event where he joined the Congress party. To check the clip, FACTLY says it searched YouTube for videos of Thakor speaking at a Congress rally and then searched specifically for his speech at the Congress joining event. It reports finding an original video and comparing it with the circulated version. At 23:20 in the original, according to the review, the crowd responds “Zindabad” when Thakor says “Rahul Gandhi”; it does not chant Modi slogans. The review also identifies an edit that changes the apparent sequence: Thakor’s request for silence at the beginning of his speech was placed after the slogans in the Facebook video. That placement makes it appear he is stopping pro-Modi chants, FACTLY says. Its account therefore contradicts both the alleged chant and the apparent response to it, and concludes that the circulated video was doctored.

Pagella PoliticaPolitics & government

Sottolineo che il Reddito di Cittadinanza contiene specifiche regole e anche sanzioni penali che eviteranno a furbetti e criminali di accedere alla misura

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

Pagella Politica’s verdict says Dalila Nesci was right that the decree on the Reddito di Cittadinanza included criminal penalties and measures such as withdrawing or reducing the benefit for people who tried to obtain it without entitlement. The excerpt does not describe the fact-check’s research methods or provide the decree’s text; it reports the verdict and the assessment behind it. [S1: “Dalila Nesci ha ragione nel sottolineare come il decreto sul reddito di cittadinanza, di cui è relatrice, contenga anche diverse sanzioni penali e misure punitive (revoca e riduzione del beneficio) per chi prova ad ottenerlo senza averne diritto”] The verdict qualifies that agreement: parliamentary technicians considered one category of penalties too high in light of the Penal Code’s system of punishments, while another provision had an indeterminate element that might conflict with a principle applicable to criminal laws. The excerpt therefore supports the claim that the decree contained such rules, but also records concerns about their design. [S1: “Queste sanzioni sono però, a giudizio dei tecnici parlamentari, in un caso troppo elevate, considerato il sistema di pene previsto dal codice penale, e nell’altro contengono un elemento di indeterminatezza che potrebbe essere contrario a uno dei principi che vanno applicati alle norme penali.”]

Fact CrescendoPolitics & government

Claim: Rahul Gandhi ran away from a student meeting

Publisher’s rating: Fact Crescendo Rating: False

The claim described a student named Maneka in Haryana asking Rahul Gandhi about China and Kashmir, after which he supposedly could not answer and left the meeting. The review checked whether the photograph circulated with that story was genuine and whether its setting and date matched the claim. It reports that Gandhi did speak with students at Chennai’s Stella Maris College on March 13, and says he answered questions there; it does not present that event as the alleged Haryana meeting. (S1: “கடந்த மார்ச் 13ம் தேதியன்று மாணவிகளிடையே உரையாடினார்” and “எந்த கேள்விக்கும் பதில் சொல்ல மாட்டேன் என ராகுல் மறுக்கவில்லை.”) For the Haryana allegation, the review says it checked Gandhi’s schedule on the Congress party’s official website. It reports that he was in Uttarakhand on March 16, rested on March 17, and travelled to Karnataka on March 18—not Haryana. That chronology contradicts the claimed Haryana appearance on the date at issue. (S1: “குறிப்பிட்ட நபர் கூறுவதைப் போல, மார்ச் 16ம் தேதியன்று ராகுல் காந்தி, ஹரியானா செல்லவில்லை. அன்றைய நாளில் அவர் உத்தரகாண்ட் சென்றுள்ளார்.”) The review also describes a reverse-image search using Yandex and Google. It says the photograph was authentic, but identified it as an image from a public meeting in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, on October 31, 2018. In the review’s account, Gandhi had gone down from the stage to meet people who were calling to him, rather than fleeing a student’s question. The review therefore distinguishes a real photograph from the false explanation attached to it: the image was old, from another state and event, and the alleged Haryana incident did not occur. (S1: “இது உண்மையான புகைப்படம்தான்”; “கடந்த 2018ம் ஆண்டு அக்டோபர் 31ம் தேதி, கார்கோனில் நடைபெற்ற பொதுக்கூட்டம்”; “பொதுமக்களை சந்திக்கவே அவ்வாறு ஓடியுள்ளார்.”)