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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

Visuals of 1 lakh people converting to Buddhism at an event held in Jaipur on 16 October 2022

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns crowd images presented as showing 1 lakh people converting to Buddhism at an event in Jaipur on 16 October 2022. FACTLY reports that its search for national and local media coverage found no reports of such a Jaipur event. It also describes checking the images themselves through reverse image search, rather than relying only on the absence of news coverage. [S1: “In the first place, we searched for the media reports about this mass conversion event but couldn’t find any such report either by national or local media. We then did a reverse image search of the images shared in the viral post”] The image search led FACTLY to a post by Prabuddh Bharat, which the review identifies as the source of the same images. That post described a Dhamma Mela organized by the Indian Buddhist Mahasabha in Pimpri-Chinchwad, near Pune, on 15 October 2022. This places the visuals at a different event and location from the one claimed. [S1: “found that the same images were shared in a twitter post by official twitter account of ‘Prabuddh Bharat’”] [S1: “these images belong to ‘Dhamma Mela’ organised by Indian Buddhist Mahasabha on the occasion of 66th Dhamma chakra Pravartan Day that concluded on 15 October 2022 at Pimpri-chinchwad near Pune, Maharashtra.”] FACTLY notes that people did accept Buddhism at the Maharashtra occasion, but distinguishes that from the alleged Jaipur mass-conversion event. Its stated conclusion is that the images show the Maharashtra gathering, not a reported Jaipur event on 16 October. [S1: “Though several Buddhist conversions are reported on this occasion, no such event was held in Jaipur recently.”]

FACTLYReligion & belief

Ananathapura lake temple releases a circular quashing the rumours circulating regarding the death of the temple’s crocodile ‘Babiya.’

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a notice from the Ananathapura lake temple saying that rumours about Babiya’s death were false. The investigation found that the notice was authentic, but it was not a new response to the crocodile’s death in 2022: the temple had posted it in 2019, during an earlier wave of false rumours. The article identifies the viral post as presenting that older clarification as recent.

El Detector/Univision NoticiasReligion & belief

“La ONU declara que sus principios y declaraciones sirvan como religión mundial para tomar el dominio de la humanidad. En su proyecto ID 2020, dicen que es obligatorio acorralar a los cristianos para dividir sus creencias y fe".

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim attributes two intentions to the United Nations: turning its principles and declarations into a world religion to dominate humanity, and using ID2020 to require that Christians be rounded up and their beliefs divided. The review says it checked a message circulating on WhatsApp and social media, including the wording submitted to its WhatsApp chatbot. It found that the message misrepresented the purpose of ID2020 and the UN’s position on religious freedom. To check the ID2020 allegation, the reviewers searched Google for “ID2020 ONU” and consulted the alliance’s official website and its manifesto, which they say was prepared in 2018 with the UN Refugee Agency. They report finding no reference there to the Church, Christians, or religious beliefs. Instead, the manifesto describes identity verification as a fundamental human right and notes that many people lack recognized proof of identity. The review says the project focuses on a global digital identification system, linking it to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of providing legal identity for all by 2030. The review also searched the UN’s Spanish-language news site for a declaration against Christians. It found none, and points to Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the freedom to change or manifest one’s religion or belief. The evidence presented therefore contradicts the message’s portrayal of ID2020 and the UN’s stated religious-freedom position; it does not support the claim that the UN declared itself an enemy of the Church.