Claim: YouTube is removing the ‘dislike’ button from the platform. Fact: YouTube is making its dislike count private to deter harassment but the dislike button is not going anywhere. After the change comes into place, creators can still view the dislike count for their videos in the YouTube Studio should they wish to. On 11 […]
Claim: A picture has surfaced online claiming to depict Jonathan, a tortoise born in 1832, five years prior to the coronation of Queen Victoria. Posts sharing the picture state that Jonathan is due to turn 190 years old in 2022, making him the oldest-known land animal alive today. Fact: The picture in fact shows ‘A11’, […]
Claim: A recent report claimed that the Central Directorate of National Savings (“National Savings”), the state-owned savings bank of Pakistan, has bumped up profit rates on various government schemes. Fact: The increase in National Savings’ profit rates mentioned in the report in fact came about in July 2020 and is not a recent development. However, […]
Claim: A 21-year-old girl was forced to marry a 10-year-old boy, causing many Pakistanis to react with fury. Fact: The alleged incident occurred in 2017 and is not recent. On 25 October 2021, Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper Daily Ausaf published a news story with the following headline: “10سالہ نوعمر لڑکا اور 21سالہ جوان لڑکی۔۔۔پاکستان کے بڑے […]
Claim: A photograph shows the oldest tree in the world, a 6,000 year old giant tree in Tanzania. Fact: To date, no tree in the world has been verified to be 6,000 or more years old. The oldest living non-clonal tree on record is a more than 4,800-year-old bristlecone pine called ‘Methuselah’ in the Inyo […]
Claim: The PKR 5,000 note will be discontinued and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced the date that this move will take place. Fact: The SBP has not announced a decision to discontinue the PKR 5,000 banknote and, in fact, has no plans to do so in the future. In an email to […]
Claim: The Government of Sindh has announced a public holiday on 4 November. Fact: The Sindh government has indeed announced that 4 November will be a holiday to mark the annual Diwali festival. However, the holiday applies only to Hindu employees of the provincial government. On 1 November 2021, claims that the Government of Sindh […]
Claim: A private bank shut down a transgender activist’s newly-opened account, claiming that her income did not comply with Shariah laws. Fact: The incident did occur but it dates back to January 2021; some websites have picked up the story and rehashed it as a new incident. News media website Pak 92 News on 29 […]
Claim: The cover of The Economist’s 9 October Asia edition features an image of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, accompanied by text stating, “Imran Khan Will Win The Next Elections.” Fact: The Economist never published such a cover and the image appears to be doctored. The text on the cover seems to have been taken […]
Claim: A photo of a grave shows the final resting place of Liaquat Ali Khan, one of Pakistan’s founding fathers and the country’s first prime minister. Fact: The grave is in fact of Liaquat Ali Khan’s mother, Mahmuda Begum. On 28 September 2021, a Facebook user shared a photo of an old, crumbling grave, with […]
Claim: A video purportedly taken from the Burj Khalifa depicts Cyclone Shaheen thundering off the coast of Dubai. Fact: The video is in fact a rendering created by digital artist Brent Shavnore in 2019 using a still image captured in Miami, Florida in the United States. On 16 October 2021, a 24-second clip surfaced on […]
Claim: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has changed its policy requiring women to adopt their husband’s names as surnames after marriage. Fact: Women were previously not required to change their surnames but it was a practice encouraged unofficially. Rather, under the previous policy, women had to include their husband’s name in a mandatory […]