Haseem uz Zaman

Haseem is a senior digital verification journalist at Soch Fact Check and producer at Soch Videos. Previously associated with Geo News, they have extensive news-building and editorial experience and have led a breaking news department in the past. They divide their time between reading and photography and their areas of interest include gender, minority rights, intersectionality, and class and oppression, as well as protests and politics in South Asia.

Follow this Author
True False
False

Claim: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will not issue fresh banknotes ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr this year. Fact: The SBP refuted the claim, saying it has issued fresh banknotes worth PKR 27 billion of all denominations so far to thousands of branches of various commercial banks. On 17 March 2025, Facebook user ‘Adnan Raza Khan’ […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reminisced about Imran Khan while addressing the National Assembly during his February 2025 trip. He said he “wished” that he “could shake hands with” the former prime minister and hoped to “meet Imran Khan” in the future. Fact: Erdoğan did not make any such remarks; in fact, he never […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: Netflix has launched a “Movie Reviewer Program”, which pays $16-$38 per hour for anyone to review “unreleased” movies. Fact: The claim is a scam. A Netflix spokesperson told Soch Fact Check that it is “not accurate”. On 23 January 2025, user @sundayprs shared (archive) on Threads an apparent method to earn “passive income”. Their […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A video shows Trump breaking down and crying over the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires during a visit to the disaster site in California. Fact: The video is most likely AI-generated. Just a week after wildfires erupted in Los Angeles on 7 January 2025, multiple posts surfaced on social media carrying a video of […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A combination of videos show the destruction caused by a storm, likely Éowyn, in the UK in January 2025. Fact: None of the visuals are from any of the storms that hit the UK in January 2025. Two of the videos are old and unrelated whereas a third one was created using digital manipulation […]

Read More
True False
Misleading

Claim: Singapore has elected Halimah Yacob as its new president. Fact: Singapore has not elected Halimah Yacob as its new president. Yacob was the city-state’s eighth president and held the position from 2017 to 2023. The Republic’s incumbent president is Tharman Shanmugaratnam. On 1 January 2025, Threads user @riazkhanbadani posted (archive) a video showing the […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A bird that can breathe fire or shoot fire from its eyes caused the Los Angeles wildfires, according to a video. Fact: No such fire-breathing bird exists. The accompanying video is actually the work of a VFX artist who created the clip back in 2020 using CGI and compositing technique. On 23 January 2025, […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A video shows the first stage of the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, in which “fire [started] falling from the sky” when a celestial object was struck by unidentified objects and erupted into flames. Fact: The video is not only unrelated to the Los Angeles wildfires but was digitally created and originally posted back […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: Donald Trump defended the burqa after being “impressed” by Imran Khan’s remarks about Muslim women’s veils in the past, particularly when the latter said that “girls use hijab as a weapon”. The US president also stated, “Veiling is more appropriate than wearing make-up. If I were a woman, I would also wear the veil.” […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: YouTuber Luke Damant, who was missing for days, has been found dead in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, three weeks after entering the country via Pakistan. Fact: Damant is alive and has refuted the claim through his social media accounts. On 5 January 2024, Facebook page ‘Crick Zone’ posted (archive) a picture of Australian YouTuber and travel […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A video shows a firefighting plane crashing shortly after takeoff while attempting to douse a fire in Los Angeles in January 2025. Fact: The video actually shows a firefighting plane that crashed in January 2024 in Chile. It has no connection to the January 2025 Los Angeles fires. On 11 January 2025, Threads user […]

Read More
True False
False

Claim: A viral video includes two clips from Pakistani TV dramas where the actors are kissing. Fact: The video features content doctored, possibly through artificial intelligence (AI). The actual footage taken from existing dramas does not show any of the actors kissing. On 21 December 2024, Facebook user ‘Parveen Baig’ posted (archive) a video showing […]

Read More