Claim: A hotel that enacted a bronze statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his honour refused to provide him with a room for free despite an earlier promise of a lifetime membership for him; in response, the actor slept under the sculpture and warned people of the fickle nature of one’s position, money, intelligence, and youth. […]
Claim: The world’s oldest olive tree is found in “Jerusalem, Israel” and is “estimated to be over 3000 years old”; a picture accompanying the claim shows a gnarly old tree with an extremely thick trunk. Fact: The picture shows the Olive Tree of Vouves in the Ano Vouves village in Kolymvari, which is located on Greece’s […]
Claim: A video shows the Congo Army chief being dragged away from his vehicle into a building by his wife, who has accused him of cheating. Fact: The video does not, in fact, show the Congo Army chief but another man. Moreover, the clip is from a movie and shared online in a misleading context. […]
Claim: A video shows a woman being shot dead in the Manipur state of India. Fact: The video is old and not from Manipur. On 21 July 2023, the chief of Public News’ Karachi bureau, Samar Abbas, retweeted a video (archive) showing a woman in the Manipur state of India being forced to kneel down […]
Claim: A video shows a littered aisle, as well as a dirty toilet, including tissues, water, and human excrement at the edge of the chair commode, inside a British Airways flight from Pakistan to London. Fact: The video is neither recent nor from a British Airways flight from Pakistan to London. It is, in fact, […]
Claim: Malala Yousafzai “is silent about human rights abuses in Pakistan”. Fact: Soch Fact Check has identified at least 14 instances since the start of 2018 wherein Malala has spoken up about human rights or condemned human rights abuses in Pakistan. On 30 July 2023, Twitter user @MerruX responded to a tweet by Malala Yousafzai, […]
Claim: US Marshals have arrested Bill Gates and charged him with “war crimes against humanity”; he is now being held under armed watch at Guantanamo Bay. The text is attributed to the Washington Post. An accompanying photo shows Gates strapped to a gurney. Fact: Gates has not been arrested and the accompanying photo has been […]
Claim: Drone cameras have been banned across the Sindh province in Pakistan. Fact: Drone cameras have not been permanently banned; they have only been temporarily banned for four days — 8, 9, 10, and 12 Muharram 1445 — during which Ashura processions will take place in specific areas of Karachi. The Islamic dates correspond to […]
Claim: Afghan singer Hasiba Noori was shot dead by unknown assailants in Peshawar in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Fact: There is no truth to the claim. Hasiba Noori has released a video statement saying that she is alive. Police in Peshawar and Quetta have also denied receiving information about any such targeted killing. On 17 […]
Claim: A picture shows a car on fire amid riots in Belgium over the June 2023 police killing of Nahel M in Paris, France. Fact: The picture is unrelated to the June 2023 France protests and is, in fact, from football fans engaging in arson in Amsterdam following Morocco’s win over Belgium in the 2022 […]
Claim: A video shows Algerians atop the Monument à la République in Paris as riots erupted in France over the killing of an Algerian teenager in June 2023. Fact: The video is unrelated to the June 2023 protests in France and is actually from the 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations against former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. On […]
Claim: CCTV footage shows a speeding car crushing three people in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Fact: The footage is from Hyderabad, India, and not Pakistan. Content warning: This video contains content that may be graphic for some readers; discretion advised On 5 July 2023, Twitter account @Karachi_Update posted a video (archive) showing closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of […]