Journalist Waqas Ahmed was not hired by the International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF)
Contrary to viral news, journalist Waqas Ahmed was never hired by the IHRF
Claim: Journalist Waqas Ahmed has started working at the International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF).
Fact: Both Waqas Ahmed and the IHRF deny the claim.
On 25 August 2022, a Twitter account called Standup Pakistan shared a tweet claiming that 29-year-old journalist Waqas Ahmed is the first Pakistani to work for the IHRF. This tweet gained further traction when shared by verified accounts and other journalists in Pakistan. However Waqas Ahmed responded to the tweet saying it is false.
Many Pakistanis sharing this news believe the IHRF to be an Indian organization considering where their website activity is geolocated. The Twitter handle Standup Pakistan claimed that Waqas Ahmed is the first Pakistani to work for them.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check got in touch with Waqas Ahmed on Twitter who explicitly denied ever working or applying to work for IHRF. Waqas confirmed that he has nothing to do with this organisation and that he does not work in the sector of human rights advocacy and instead works on doing analytics for many local news publishers. He also added that those spreading this fake news are doing so to attack him and discredit him so that he may stop commenting on Pakistani politics.
He also replied to the tweets popularizing this false claim on Twitter, here, here and here.
We also reached out to the organisation via email and they responded with a confirmation that they had not hired Waqas Ahmed.
Virality
Tweets here, here and here reached over 462,063 followers and gathered 3,016 interactions on Twitter.
Conclusion: A viral tweet claimed on 25 August, that journalist Waqas Ahmed has been hired by the International Human Rights Foundation. However, this is false. Waqas Ahmed categorically denies working for the IHRF and the IHRF denies hiring Ahmed.
