Claim: A screenshot of Afghan cricket player Farid Malik apologising after for a recent on-field feud with Pakistan’s Asif Ali was widely shared on social media Fact: The Twitter account purportedly representing Farid Malik is fake, and neither player has issued an apology for the verbal spat, which turned violent. Pakistan’s cricket team faced off […]
Claim: A photo apparently shows Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites visible in the sky from Pakistan. Fact: The image is, in fact, two years old and has no link to Pakistan. It was taken as a screenshot from a video posted by a Kosovo-based software developer. On 8 September 2022, Facebook user Umar Farooq posted in […]
Claim: A picture of a minor girl is shared with a caption that implies she is an affectee of the recent devastating floods in Pakistan. Fact: The child is a Rohingya refugee, who was photographed by Paula Bronstein on 29 October 2017. On 25 August 2022, Pakistani actress and model Neelam Muneer Khan posted on […]
Claim: According to British journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer, extreme weather events are not increasing worldwide Fact: Extreme weather events are increasing across the globe, especially in North America, Europe and Asia, according to the Summary for Policymakers report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). On 2 September 2022, Talk TV, a recently launched British […]
Claim: A video shows darkness suddenly engulfing a market in Dera Ismail Khan, making people run and drivers turn on their headlights. Fact: The video is, in fact, not from the summer 2022 monsoon season in Pakistan, nor is it from Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but Balochistan. It was originally uploaded online in March […]
Claim: A new iOS update automatically activated a feature that shares users’ precise location on Instagram for all other users on the platform to see. Fact: The location setting is built into the device and cannot be automatically switched on through an iOS update. Instagram has officially denied this claim. On 26 August 2022, a […]
Claim: Social media post claim that a popular indoor plant, dieffenbachia, is so deadly that it could kill an adult in 15 minutes and a child in less than a minute and may also cause permanent blindness. Fact: Claims that the dieffenbachia plant leads to death if ingested and permanent blindness if rubbed into the […]
Claim: A form circulating on social media asks individuals affected by the torrential rains and flooding in Sindh to submit information to obtain relief funds from the Government of Sindh. Fact: The Sindh government has not issued this form. A spokesperson for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has termed it “not genuine”. A form […]
Claim: A video shows four SUVs were swept away in a flash flood in Pakistan. Fact: The video is, in fact, from September 2020 when flash floods hit Sharjah and the vehicles were swept away in the Wadi Shees. Earlier this month, Facebook user ‘Muhammad Babbar Khan’ posted a reel — the social media platform’s […]
Claim: A viral image shows a young girl who drowned in Balochistan during the recent monsoon flooding in Pakistan. Fact: The viral image is of a girl who drowned in River Kabul, Peshawar and was found by rescue services near Attock. On 27 July 2022, an image of an infant’s dead body went viral on […]
Claim: Pakistan is a top destination for countries to dump their waste, with most countries opting to dispose of their waste in Pakistan. Fact: According to publicly available information, Pakistan’s relative share in the import of global waste is small. The misinformation appears connected to reports that 40 No Objection Certificates (“NOCs”) were issued to […]
Claim: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will send images of naked humans to space to elicit a response from aliens. Fact: NASA is not working on a broadcast to launch images of naked humans into space. The misleading reports appear to have stemmed from a research study recently published in arXiv — an […]