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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

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

ഹിന്ദുമത വിശ്വാസികളുടെ വിശ്വാസമാണ് രാമക്ഷേത്ര നിര്‍മ്മാണം. അതിനു കോണ്‍ഗ്രസ്സ് കൂട്ടുനില്‍ക്കുന്നത് സമസ്തക്ക് പൊള്ളേണ്ടതില്ല. വിശ്വാസികള്‍ക്കൊപ്പമാണ് കോണ്‍ഗ്രസ്സ് – മജീദ് സാഹിബ്

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYReligion & belief

A temple in Madhya Pradesh decorated with 100 crores worth of gold for Lakshmi pooja.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video said to show a temple in Madhya Pradesh decorated with 100 crores worth of gold for Lakshmi pooja. FACTLY reports that its investigation identified the temple in the video as the Ranganatha Swamy temple in Hyderabad, Telangana, and the event as Vaikunta Ekadashi celebrations—not the claimed Lakshmi pooja at a Madhya Pradesh temple. The review describes checking screenshots from the circulated video through reverse image search. It says that search led to a YouTube video with a description identifying the Hyderabad temple and festival. The review then reports finding similar footage on ETV Telangana’s official YouTube channel, where the visuals are identified as Vaikunta Ekadashi celebrations at Jiyaguda Ranganatha Swamy Temple. This evidence addresses the central identification in the claim: the reviewed visuals match celebrations at a named temple in Hyderabad, rather than the claimed location and occasion. The review also notes that the Hyderabad temple has celebrated Vaikunta Ekadashi with grand decorations in previous years. Its account therefore supports the conclusion that the video’s temple and event were misrepresented; the excerpt does not provide a separate valuation or verification of the claimed gold amount.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photos of Lord Ram being displayed on the billboards at New York Times Square

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review distinguishes between an actual Times Square display and the specific pictures circulating online. It reports that a billboard showed Lord Ram and a 3D visualization of the Ayodhya Ram Temple, but concludes that the social-media photos presented as evidence of that display were edited or otherwise not genuine. The review concerns images shared in connection with the temple foundation-stone ceremony on 5 August 2020; it does not say that no such billboard appeared. For one image, the review describes using Yandex reverse image search to find a matching Times Square scene without Lord Ram on the billboards. It says the people, cars and other surroundings match, and reports that the underlying photograph had circulated online since at least 2011. For another, it identifies a matching 2019 CNN Arabic photograph in which the billboard instead shows Middle Eastern artist Amr Diab. The review also notes that the second shared image bore the account name IND_CYBORG, which it associates with a digital artist who posted edited images.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media photo claimed to show the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Its review says the image was instead of Jamia Mosque in Gulbarga, Karnataka, and was not related to the Babri Masjid. The article also places the claim in the context of the Ram Mandir foundation-stone ceremony, noting that some people shared the Jamia Mosque photo as the demolished mosque while opposing the construction. The review describes a reverse-image search of the circulated photo. It reports finding a similar image in a Britannica article about Kalaburagi, also called Gulbarga, and says that article identified the view as Jamia Masjid in Gulbarga. FACTLY also reports finding a similar photo on Alamy, which likewise identified it as Jamia Mosque in Gulbarga. These image matches support the review’s identification of the photo as a view of the mosque in Karnataka, rather than the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The review’s stated conclusion is that the Jamia Mosque photo was falsely shared as the demolished Babri Masjid. The supplied excerpt describes the comparison and the identifications reported by Britannica and Alamy, but does not provide further details about the image-search process or the original photograph’s provenance.

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: Has Ram Temple evidence found in a copper plate at Ayodhya

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a video circulated with the claim that excavation for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya had uncovered a capsule containing a copper plate that documented a temple built there thousands of years ago. The video shows someone opening a capsule-shaped object and displaying a plate. The review says the post was shared on Facebook on August 3, 2020, and describes the claim as having spread widely. Its conclusion was that the video did not show evidence of an ancient Ram temple found at the construction site. To trace the footage, the reviewers extracted a frame and ran a reverse-image search. They report finding an earlier version shared by a Hindi-language Twitter user, who described a copper container and a letter found during excavation at the Ram Janmabhoomi site. According to the review, as the story spread into other languages, the Tamil version added the claim that the plate was an original document about a temple built there thousands of years ago. The review’s account of the object’s provenance points away from Ayodhya: it says the plate’s writing was identified as Hebrew, not Sanskrit, and traces the video to an Instagram account called Define Avcilari, which it says first posted it in April. The review says that post, written in Persian, did not identify the object as coming from India, Ayodhya, or the Ram Temple; it described it as an ancient artifact. Thus, the video’s circulation and the claims added to it do not establish that the object was recovered at the temple site.

YouturnReligion & belief

இப்போது ராமர் கோயில் கட்ட அஸ்திவாரம் தோண்டும்போது அங்கு பல ஆயிரம் ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன் கட்டப்பட்ட ராமர் கோயில் பற்றிய விபரம் கேப்ஸ்யூல் வடிவில் தாமிரத்தகட்டில் மூலப்பத்திரமாக இருந்தது கிடைத்துள்ளது.

Publisher’s rating: Fake

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: Special puja done for cobra in Srikalahasti Temple

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a video shared as showing a priest performing a ritual for a live cobra at Srikalahasti Temple in India. The review notes that the footage showed a person holding a snake near a temple sanctum, and that the caption identified the location as Srikalahasti. It says the video was posted on Facebook on August 2, 2020, and was being widely shared.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Videos showing decorations made for the Ayodhya Ram Temple foundation stone laying ceremony

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review checked two videos circulated as showing decorations for the Ayodhya Ram Temple foundation-stone ceremony scheduled for 5 August 2020. It found that both were old and unrelated to Ayodhya, while distinguishing them from separate reporting that Ayodhya was being illuminated ahead of the ceremony. The review’s conclusion concerns the two shared videos, not whether preparations or illumination took place in Ayodhya. [S1: “A couple of videos are being shared widely on social media with a claim that they show decorations made for the foundation stone laying ceremony of Ram Temple at Ayodhya on 05 August 2020.”; “While it is true that Ayodhya is being beautified for the upcoming event, the posted videos are old. They are also not related to Ayodhya.”] For the first video, the review says reverse-image searches found it online by February 2020 and found a similar video posted in January with a title identifying Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Jiyaguda, Hyderabad. Searching the associated terms led the reviewers to identify the decoration as being for Vaikunta Ekadasi 2020 at a Hyderabad temple. This provenance places the footage elsewhere and before the Ayodhya event. [S1: “When the screenshots of the video were run through Google Reverse Image, the same video was found to be on the internet at least from February 2020. Also, a YouTube user has posted a video with similar visuals in January 2020 with the title – ‘Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Jiyaguda, Hyderabad’.”; “So, when searched with the keywords, it was found that the decoration was made for ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi 2020’ at a temple in Hyderabad.”] For the second video, the review traced similar footage to a YouTube upload from April 2019 titled “LASER LIGHT SHOW||RAMNAVAMI||2019.” It also reports that the uploader said the video was taken during a Ram Navami rally at Shahada, Maharashtra, and that a Marathi local channel had posted the same visuals in connection with that rally. These earlier, geographically distinct origins support the finding that neither circulated video shows the Ayodhya ceremony decorations. [S1: “The same video was found to be uploaded on YouTube in April 2019 with the title – ‘LASER LIGHT SHOW||RAMNAVAMI||2019’.”; “When asked about the video by a user, the uploader has replied that the video was taken during a Ram Navami rally at Shahada in Maharashtra.”; “So, when searched with keywords, a video with the same visuals was found to be uploaded by a Marathi local channel as a video related to Ram Navami rally in Shahada (Maharashtra).”]

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: This is not Ram Temple bhoomi pujan celebration from Spain

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a video shared as showing Hindus in Spain celebrating the start of the Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya. The review says that the post identified the footage as a Spain bhoomi pujan celebration, but the video had circulated online before the event it was purported to show: the reviewer found the same footage on YouTube in uploads from 2018 and 2019. To investigate the video’s origin, the publisher says it converted frames from the clip into images and ran a reverse-image search. It then searched for “Dhol Tasha” and Spain, finding a full video of a procession by a Maharashtra music group. The review also reports finding a June 15, 2018 news report that the Mumbai-based Dhol Tasha group was going to Spain to take part in an international folk music festival, and says it matched that group to the one in the video. On that basis, the review identifies the footage as a procession at the international folk music festival in Spain in 2018—not a celebration of the Ram Temple bhoomi pujan. It concludes that the post attached a false description to older footage. The excerpt does not establish the procession’s exact date or location within Spain, so those details cannot be specified here.