Man arrested in Pakistan for alleged role in spreading disinformation linked to UK riots
By Sophia Saifi, Azaz Syed and Zahid Mahmood, CNN
Islamabad (CNN) — Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Authority arrested a man on Tuesday who it claimed had spread disinformation thought to have enflamed the recent unrest in the UK.
In a statement shared with CNN, the FIA claimed that an X account user called @Channel3Nownews “shared images of a video regarding an incident that happened at Southport England. The X user @Channel3Nownews further posted an article on the website www.channel3now.com with the caption saying that a 17-year-old has been arrested in connection with a stabbing incident in Southport, England.
According to the FIA statement the “article contained a false claim about the arrest of a Muslim asylum seeker by police in the stabbing incident in a dance party in Southport on July 29, 2024.”
The FIA confirmed that the man has not been charged.
Police in Lahore have identified the man, arrested by the FIA, as Farhan Asif, and that he was questioned about the article on Monday.
Police told CNN that Asif allegedly admitted that he had written the story based on information copied from a UK-based social media account without verifying it.
It’s unclear if Asif has an attorney.
A police official, who spoke to CNN, also shared that during the questioning it was learned that the website Asif was running was used to publish mainly American, British and Australian stories so that he could get online traffic from those countries and earn revenue via Google Ads.
Asif told police he would earn close to a thousand dollars a month by doing this, according to the official.
After a statement from UK police, after the riots, Asif claims he deleted the story and issued an immediate apology.
After questioning Asif, the police official told CNN that Asif’s case had been forwarded to the FIA to take over the investigation.
The UK faced its worst disorder in more than a decade, after outbreaks of far-right, anti-immigrant violence swept the country. Protests first broke out late last month, after an anti-immigrant misinformation campaign stoked outrage over a stabbing attack that left three children dead in Southport, northern England.
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