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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 Koneswaram temple located on a narrow island in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post identified a picture of a temple on a narrow island as Koneswaram Temple in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. FACTLY’s review says the image was edited: it combined unrelated pictures of a temple, devotees and an island, rather than showing the Sri Lankan temple as claimed. To check the identification, the review compared the post’s temple image with outside and inside views of Koneswaram Temple found on the ‘All About Sri Lanka’ website, and with a YouTube video showing the temple’s overall view. It reported that the outside view in those references did not match the image in the post. It also examined a Google Earth view, noting that Koneswaram Temple is not surrounded by water on all sides, unlike the island setting depicted in the shared image. For the island’s location, FACTLY reports that a reverse-image search found similar photographs identified by Alamy and TripAdvisor as showing an island in Ao Phang Nga National Park, Thailand. Together, the mismatched temple views and the island’s identification support the review’s conclusion that the post presents an edited image as the Sri Lankan temple.