By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detained a man for allegedly spreading false information on social media that sparked riots in the UK, as shown in a copy of the First Information Report (FIR).
Farhan Asif, a resident of Lahore, was detained on Wednesday for spreading disinformation about the fatal stabbing of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport in late July, leading to widespread riots.
UK media identified a little-known platform, Channel3Now, as the source of the false claims, which suggested the British-born suspect was a Muslim immigrant who arrived in the UK by boat. UK broadcaster ITV News reported that a Pakistani individual was behind the false story.
After the misinformation led to a violent mob attacking a mosque near the site of the stabbing the next day, police took the unusual step of clarifying that the suspect was born in the UK It’s been widely reported in British media that his parents are from Rwanda and said to have Christian beliefs.
Channel3 Now, an account on the X social media platform that purports to be a news channel, was one of the first outlets to report the false name, Ali Al-Shakati. A Facebook account for the channel said it is managed by people in Pakistan and the US.
The site’s editor-in-chief posted an apology July 31 for “the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3 NOW. We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”
But the false reports were widely disseminated and are blamed for fueling more than a week of rioting that broke out across the United Kingdom and has led to more than 1,000 arrests.
Authorities have blamed far-right agitators for stoking the violent unrest by continuing to spread misinformation and promoting the violent demonstrations online.
“Farhan Asif, who ran a web publication, was arrested in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore,” said an FIA statement.
It stated that Asif, a freelance web developer, posted an article on his social media account, claiming the attacker was a Muslim immigrant, and shared pictures of the killings.
The FIR stated that Asif admitted providing misleading information to other media outlets to divert blame. A search of his home yielded two laptops and a phone, revealing that the suspected Twitter account Channel3Nownews was active and shared the alleged post.
After picking up the fake content from another social media account, he was found to be involved in “disseminating the information using his Twitter account, Channel3NOwnews, with the intent to glorify the incident about the arrest of a Muslim asylum seeker by police in the stabbing incident in Southport, England, creating a sense of fear, panic, and insecurity,” the FIA said.
The FIA stated that it had been established that the account that spread the fake news belonged to Asif, who has also admitted to passing on the fake information to a foreign publication.
The FIR was registered under sections 9 and 10(a) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, related to the glorification of an offense and cyberterrorism.
A district court granted a one-day remand for Asif, ordering the investigating officer to complete the investigation and produce him in court on August 22.
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