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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Religion & belief fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about religion & belief. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,371 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo of a Shivling that was unearthed during the excavations at Ayodhya in UP.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim is that a circulated photo shows a Shivling unearthed during excavations at the Ayodhya temple site in Uttar Pradesh. FACTLY’s review distinguishes the photo from the separate reports of ancient remains found at that site: it says the pictured Shivling was not unearthed in Ayodhya, but is related to a temple in Farrukhabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, and was reportedly around 250 years old. To trace the image, the review says it used Google Reverse Image Search. That search found the same photo in a 2016 Amar Ujala article, which identified the Shivling as related to a temple in Farrukhabad. The review therefore treats the earlier appearance and location attribution as evidence that the photo does not document the Ayodhya excavation. The review acknowledges that reports from 2020 described ancient temple remains—including pillars, deity idols and a Shivling—found during excavations at the Ayodhya temple site. Its conclusion is narrower: those reported discoveries do not establish that this particular photograph shows one of them. It also notes that FACTLY had previously debunked the same photo when it circulated with a similar claim in 2020.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Video of a Muslim boy urinating on Shiva Lingam

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a post claiming that a Muslim boy was shown urinating on a Shiva lingam. Its investigation identifies the footage as depicting an incident in 2018 in Pisinikada village, in the Vishakapatnam area, and says that regional news reports covered the same video. The post’s framing as an incident involving a Muslim boy therefore does not match the account of the people involved reported by the sources FACTLY describes. [S1: “The video actually shows an old incident of a miscreant urinating in a temple in Vishakapatnam’s Pisinikada village back in 2018.”; “YouTube search with relevant keywords led us to a 2018 Telugu regional news channel video report which reported the same video in the post.”] The review says that another report identified the two accused as Ramesh and Anand, from Krishnapuram village, and that an FIR had been filed against them. It also reports that the FIR named Ramesh and Anand and that an Anakapalli rural police sub-inspector said both accused confessed to belonging to the Christian community. This is the evidence in the review that contradicts the post’s identification of the person in the video as Muslim. [S1: “As per this report, the miscreants were identified as Ramesh and Anand from Krishnapuram village of Anakapelli Mandal, and that an FIR has been filed against these two.”; “Altnews, a fact-checking organisation accessed the FIR copy related to the incident. Even the FIR named the culprits as Ramesh and Anand. Also, as per Anakapalli rural police sub-inspector, both the accused confessed that they belong to the Christian community.”] FACTLY presents its conclusion as applying to the old temple-urination video, not as a claim that the video was fabricated. It notes that the footage was being recirculated with a communal narrative in the wake of a separate incident involving a Muslim boy allegedly beaten for entering a temple to drink water. The review distinguishes that separate incident from the 2018 footage under investigation. [S1: “To sum it up, old video of a man urinating in a temple is revived with a false communal narrative.”; “In view of the recent incident of a Muslim boy being allegedly beaten for entering a temple to drink water, misleading posts like these are being shared on social media platforms.”]