Claim: Lahore Police have arrested a minor boy for “dressing up as a girl and begging”. Fact: The child has not been arrested but handed over to the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau (CP&WB). On 30 January 2023, Express News Urdu published a news story titled, “معذور والدین کی دیکھ بھال کیلیے لڑکی بن کر […]
Claim: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked in an interview, “What is the biggest problem facing the next generation and what should we do to solve it today?”. He responded by saying the main goal is to stop militant Islamic regimes from getting nuclear weapons and that Pakistan is one of the two countries […]
Claim: King Charles III offered Imran Khan to become the King of the United Kingdom. Fact: The claim originated from a satirical report, which was eventually disseminated as real news. On 15 March 2023, Facebook user ‘Abdul Ghani Muhammdi’ posted a visual (archive) featuring Imran Khan, the former prime minister and chief of the Pakistan […]
Claim: A group of photos taken in March 2023 show a “mysterious red glow” over the Atlantic shortly after a powerful earthquake hit Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. Fact: The images are not from 2023 but from July 2022. They were taken by American pilot Dustin Maggard on 16 July 2022 during a flight 31,000 feet […]
Claim: A picture shows a helicopter surveilling Lahore’s Zaman Park, where PTI workers and supporters had gathered for a rally in the wee hours of 9 March 2023. Fact: One of the images is from Scotland and was shared first in 2020; the second picture is a screenshot from a video on a stock photography […]
Claim: Imran Khan addressed his party workers and supporters in Zaman Park, Lahore, on 14 March 2023 and his speech was broadcast live by Hum News as he evaded police. Fact: The live stream in question actually shows an old speech from May 2022 and was not filmed at his residence. However, Khan has been […]
Claim: A video shows a large number of people gathered at Zaman Park in Lahore to stop Imran Khan from being arrested. Fact: The clip is old and does not show Zaman Park. It is from a protest against Khan’s ouster back in April 2022 when his supporters gathered near Millennium Mall in Karachi. On […]
Claim: A video shows pills found inside cakes by Turkish brand Luppo to subtly “sterilise” Muslim children in Pakistan. Fact: The video is old and not related to Pakistan. The company has refuted the claims and provided laboratory results showing its products are not contaminated. The image of a girl child accompanying one of the […]
Claim: News outlets reported that Twitter fired a man 24 hours after hiring him. Fact: The reports were based on tweets by @SaeedDiCaprio, who posted them as an elaborate joke. On 10 February 2023, four Nigerian news outlets published a news story titled, “Elon Musk allegedly fires man from Twitter 24 hours after hiring him.” […]
Claim: Numerous pictures of dogs have surfaced on the Internet with the claim they were part of rescue operations following the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquakes in February 2023. Fact: Many of these photos are not recent or related to the Turkey-Syria earthquakes in February 2023. On 6 February 2023, Turkey and Syria were hit by two […]
Claim: A visiting faculty member who included the Julie and Mark vignette as a question in a quiz paper for his students at the COMSATS University Islamabad was suspended following a moral uproar in Pakistan, according to the Express Tribune. Fact: Official documents show that the faculty member was not suspended but, in fact, terminated […]
Claim: A video shows a man burning what is claimed to be the Quran in a street in Sweden in January 2023 before another man punches and kicks him. Fact: The clip is not from Sweden, nor is it recent. It shows a man blowtorching the Quran in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2021. On 23 January […]