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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

Claim: Seeman criticized hindu religion

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a specific news card attributed to Seeman, the coordinator of Naam Tamilar Katchi. The card said that Hindus had no discipline or self-respect in their tradition and indicated that the statement had been published on March 9, 2019. Fact Crescendo investigated whether Seeman had made that statement and whether Puthiya Thalaimurai had published the card. The review notes that the card was being shared online with Seeman’s photograph and that it was presented as a Puthiya Thalaimurai news card. (S1: “அதில், ‘ஹிந்துக்களின் பாரம்பரியத்தில் அவர்களுக்கு ஒழுக்கமோ சுயமரியாதையோ இருந்ததில்லை – சீமான், நாம் தமிழர் கட்சி ஒருங்கிணைப்பாளர்’ என்று குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.”) The review compared the circulating image with Puthiya Thalaimurai’s usual news cards. It found that the image lacked the usual Tamil font, background design, and logo, and appeared to have been assembled separately, with the text placed over a photo. These visual differences were reasons to question the card’s authenticity, but the review also sought confirmation from the outlet rather than relying on appearance alone. (S1: “இந்த நியூஸ் கார்டில், வழக்கமாக புதிய தலைமுறை வெளியிடும் நியூஸ் கார்டில் உள்ளது போன்ற தமிழ் ஃபாண்ட் இல்லை. பின்னணி டிசைன், லோகோ இல்லை.”) The review says it found no news report supporting the purported statement after searching online, and contacted an administrator from Puthiya Thalaimurai’s social-media division. According to the review, the administrator said the card was fake, and the outlet confirmed that it had not published it. On that basis, the review concluded that the card attributing the remark to Seeman was fabricated—not that the article had documented Seeman making the quoted criticism. (S1: “அப்போது அவர், ‘இது போலியானது,’ என்று குறிப்பிட்டார்.”; “இந்த நியூஸ் கார்டை நாங்கள் வெளியிடவில்லை என்று புதிய தலைமுறை உறுதி செய்துள்ளது.”)

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: K Veeramani pledges to demolish hindu temples

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a Facebook post attributing to K. Veeramani a threat that temple idols would be broken if the Periyar statue were touched. The post used a news card bearing the Puthiya Thalaimurai name. The review reports that the outlet’s official Facebook pages contained no such story, and that its online division administrator denied publishing it, describing it as a fake item made using the outlet’s name. The review also says it uploaded the card to FotoForensics for analysis, which further supported the conclusion that the card was fake. On the evidence described, the attribution rests on a fabricated news card rather than a genuine report from the outlet. The excerpt does not describe independent verification of whether Veeramani made the statement through some other source.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Video of the golden dome at the top of Tirupati temple

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video shared as showing the golden dome at the top of the Tirupati temple. FACTLY reports that the video instead shows the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple in New York. The review says that a voice in the video mentions the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam, which led investigators to search YouTube using English and Tamil keywords. Some results attributed the dome to the Srirangam temple, but a commenter pointed out that the New York temple was being confused with the Srirangam one. To check that distinction, the review says investigators searched for the New York temple and found a photo of its golden dome. They compared that photo with the dome shown at 0:17 in the circulated video and found them similar. They also report that the surroundings visible in the video matched those in a satellite image of the New York temple. These comparisons support identifying the video’s location as New York rather than Tirupati. The review further says the Srirangam temple was not the location shown: its photo had many differences from the dome visible at 0:57 in the video. Taken together, the reported voice clue, visual comparisons and satellite-image comparison distinguish the New York temple from both Srirangam and the claimed Tirupati location. The review concludes that the video is of the Ranganathaswamy temple in New York, not Tirupati.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Design of the Ram temple to be constructed in Ayodhya

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photo circulating on social media as the design of the Ram temple to be constructed in Ayodhya. FACTLY’s investigation identified the structure in the image as Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Delhi, rather than a proposed Ayodhya temple design. The review says it used reverse-image searching and then compared the image with photographs of Akshardham found through Google Maps. The review also examined whether the Ayodhya temple’s construction design had been finalised. It reported that Larsen and Toubro had offered to provide construction and design plans, but the Sriram Teerth Kshethra Trust board had not yet decided whom to entrust with the work. The review therefore distinguished a photograph of an existing Delhi temple from a finalised design for the Ayodhya project. On the evidence described in the review, the shared image did not establish what the post claimed: it depicted Akshardham, while the Ayodhya construction plan was not yet finalised at the time of the review.

Ayaan KhanReligion & belief

Hindus bury Muslims alive in India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim was attached to a video circulating amid violence in parts of Delhi. The footage showed a child and a woman being dug out, and social-media posts described them as Muslims buried alive by Hindus. The review identifies that framing as a false communal attribution, rather than evidence of an attack by Hindus. The investigation traced the footage to Islampur, in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district. It reported that a man named Akbar Ali was accused of burying his wife, Nurjahan Khatun, and daughter, Rezwana, after a quarrel. The review says local residents described a long-running dispute between the couple; the reported incident was therefore a family dispute, not the communal attack asserted in the viral posts. The review’s account distinguishes the footage’s documented provenance and reported circumstances from the social-media claim: the video was not presented as proof that Hindus were burying Muslims. It describes Ali as accused of the acts, not as having been convicted.

NewtralReligion & belief

Foto del Papa Francisco lamiendo a un niño

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a photograph circulating with the claim that Pope Francis was licking a baby. The review says it used reverse-image search and found that the image came from the Pope’s first public audience, held on 27 March 2013, in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. It reports that Francis stopped to kiss several children, including the child shown in the photograph, which was attributed to Agence France Presse (AFP). The review’s conclusion is that the circulating image was manipulated, so it does not show Francis licking the baby. Its account distinguishes the authentic scene—a stop to kiss children—from the altered version used to support the allegation. The excerpt does not describe the specific visual alterations, so it does not establish how the manipulation was carried out.