Areeba Fatima

Areeba Fatima is a senior fact-checker and investigative reporter. She studied Anthropology at Lahore University of Management Sciences. She has also worked with Fact Focus on an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation, the Suisse Secrets. She loves working with large datasets to extract meaningful information. She is interested in internet governance, financial crime, political corruption and emerging technologies.

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Claim: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) has ended its alliance with Jehangir Tareen’s Istehkam Party within Punjab. Fact: PML-N did not announce a political separation from Jehangir Tareen’s Istehkam Party. A fake account pretending to be PML-N’s official account posted a false statement on X. On 8 February 2024, an X user,  @PMLNOFFICIAL published a post […]

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Claim: Ali Muhammad Khan has announced that he is leaving the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Fact: Ali Muhammad Khan has not made any announcement about leaving the PTI. He was campaigning as an electoral candidate for the PTI hours after the false claim was made. On 6 February 2024, a post on X claimed that former […]

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Claim: Alison Wills from Canada supports Nawaz Sharif and PML-N for the upcoming election in Pakistan. Fact: @Alisonwills27 is a fake account on X. On 5 February 2024, this post was shared on X by user @Alisonwills27 with the caption: “My name is Alison Wills. I’m from Canada and I Support Nawaz Sharif”.  Fact or […]

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True False

Claim: Futbol Club Barcelona has endorsed Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslin League Nawaz (PML-N) by sharing a post on X with multiple tiger emojis.  Fact: The tiger emoji in FC Barcelona’s post on X is a symbol for their footballer Vitor Roque, whose nickname is Little Tiger. It is not an endorsement of Nawaz Sharif […]

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Claim: Video shows massive support from PTI workers as they fill the streets in Lahore in response to PTI’s call to protest in January 2024. Fact: This is an old video from when Imran Khan was en route to the Judicial Complex in Islamabad.  On 28 January 2024, a video shared on X, claimed to […]

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Claim: A video published by X user @frankjaan4555 shows a Pakistani family stealing bathroom accessories from a hotel in Malaysia. Fact: The claim is false. The video is four years old and shows an Indian family stealing from a hotel in Bali, Indonesia. It was widely reported by Indian media outlets and confirmed by the […]

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Claim: Chief of the extremist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, Masood Azhar, was kiIIed in a bomb expIosion by unknown men, on his way back from a mosque in Bahawalpur. Fact: Old images and videos from a 2021 car bomb blast in Quetta, a 2023 bomb blast in DI Khan and a road accident from 2019 were […]

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Claim: Cricket Victoria has contacted Babar Azam and offered him to play Sheffield Shield and Big Bash from Melbourne Renegades or Melbourne Stars. Fact: Cricket Victoria has not made any such offers. Their CEO Nick Cummins publicly denied the claim on his official X account.  On 10 January 2024, social media users on X and […]

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Claim: A Pakistani man was arrested by authorities on a flight to Australia for misbehaving with a flight attendant. Fact:  The man in the video is an Australian, not a Pakistani. The video was first published by 9 News Australia and has been widely reported by various Australian media outlets. On 2 January 2024, a […]

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Claim: Football player Christiano Ronaldo sold one of his gold boots for €1.5 million and donated all the money to children in Palestine. Fact: Christiano Ronaldo did not sell his golden boot to donate money to children in Palestine. In the first week of January 2024, social media users posted an image (archived) of the […]

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Claim: Director General of WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom has said that Disease X is a global problem and that we should be prepared for it. Fact: The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos discussed Disease X, a hypothetical outbreak. Disease X is not a specific disease but is the name given to a potential novel […]

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Claim: Senior politician and former National Assembly speaker Illahi Bukhsh Soomro passed away on 25 January 2024.   Fact: Soomro’s family members have confirmed to Soch Fact Check and multiple news organisations that he is alive.   On 25 January 2025 Business Recorder (later removed), Associated Press of Pakistan (later removed), Pakistan Today, The Frontier […]

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