Claim: A viral message warns Pakistani people against conducting any online transactions as ATMs will remain closed for the next two to three days after a ransomware cyberattack in the country. It advises people not to open a video clip called the “Dance of the Hillary,” which is a virus that wipes one’s mobile phone […]
Claim: A viral video shows a man walking into an elevator with an e-bike battery, which almost instantly bursts into flames, causing an explosion inside the lift. In the latter half of the video, the same man can be seen being dragged out of the elevator, unconscious and almost completely covered with burn marks. Fact: […]
Claim: Elon Musk alleged that Google has banned searches for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, preventing users from finding relevant results when searching for Trump’s name. Fact: Musk’s assertion is false. Donald J Trump can be searched on Google in the United States of America; his name has not been banned. On 29 July 2024, […]
Claim: Fiverr has been banned in Pakistan. Fact: Fiverr has not been banned, nor has it suspended its services in Pakistan. The platform briefly flagged some Pakistani freelancers’ accounts in August 2024, owing to the ongoing Internet slowdown, but a company spokesperson has confirmed that most of them “have now returned to normal”. On 15 […]
Claim: X is making users’ bookmarked posts visible to the public. Fact: Bookmarks remain private and only viewable to the user themselves, according to X’s Help Centre. There are no verifiable reports of the platform making such an announcement. On 7 July 2024, user @DropPopNet alleged (archive) that X, the social media platform formerly known […]
Claim: Google has removed Palestine from its Google Maps application amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Fact: The claim is false as Palestine was never labelled on Google Maps. The application’s map only included the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a dotted grey line indicating their borders. On 14 June 2024, Threads user @raja_official3248 posted […]
Claim: A female American soldier is looking to connect with people online on Threads. Fact: The image of the female American soldier is AI-generated. On 12 May 2024, a Threads account shared an image of an American female soldier with the caption: “Hello, Lets chat on Instagram”. Receiving more than 17,800 views and hundreds of […]
Claim: In an X post, Elon Musk said, “Democracy is under attack in Pakistan.” Fact: The X post was made by @ElonMuskVines, a parody account pretending to be the social media platform’s owner. The user has been consistently posting about Pakistan and Imran Khan, which the real Elon Musk has never done. On 23 April […]
Claim: Several news outlets and social media users reported that Pakistan’s Sindh High Court ordered the government to revoke the ban on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, within one week. Fact: This claim is false. The Sindh High Court did not issue a direct order to revoke the ban but instead gave […]
Claim: A viral video shows night vision helicopters deployed by Turkey in search of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi. Fact: The post is misleading. The video is actually from 2012 and portrays a US military drill. On 20 May 2024, a verified account with the name Sulaiman Ahmad posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) with […]
Claim: A social media video shows PML-N member Khawaja Saad Rafique making a statement against PM Shehbaz Sharif. Fact: Rafique did not make a statement against Shehbaz Sharif in a recent press conference. The original clip is from 2022. It has been doctored to include Shehbaz Sharif’s name, whereas it shows Khawaja Saad Rafique taunting […]
Claim: Mohsin Naqvi says the United States has recently banned TikTok. Fact: Naqvi’s claim is incorrect. The US House of Representatives has passed a bill offering TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest its US assets or face a ban; the Chinese application has six months to comply. The said bill has yet to pass the […]