A web developer has been charged in Pakistan with spreading disinformation after being accused of spreading the lie that the Southport knifeman was a Muslim asylum seeker (The Times).
Farhan Asif is alleged to have worked for the website Channel3 Now, which falsely reported that “a 17-year-old asylum-seeker” named Ali al-Shakati was responsible for the stabbings.
The lie went viral hours after three girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport and was subsequently blamed for fuelling the anti-immigration sentiment that materialised into riots.
It was soon revealed that the suspect was actually called Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
Channel3 Now, believed to be a “traffic farming site” that monetises content through online advertising, was one of the first sources to spread these unfounded claims.
Some have linked Channel3 Now to Russian interference campaigns after its article went viral online and was repeated on RT, the Russian state broadcaster.
Although the claims in the article were swiftly debunked, the false name and link to Channel3 Now were still being repeated on some US websites and forums days after the incident.
Following the incident, Channel3 Now removed the article and apologised. The channel has since been shut down. Last week, Asif was confronted by journalists from ITV News who tracked him down in Pakistan over suggestions he was significantly involved in the website.
Responding to these claims, Asif denied he had written the article or that he was responsible for the violence, saying: “I don’t know how such a small article or a minor Twitter account could cause widespread confusion.
“Channel3 Now mentioned that [the suspect was] a Muslim and an immigrant, but this has no connection to the chaos, which is being caused by people in his own country. If there was misinformation, it could have been addressed calmly. Why was there such an uproar?”
Asif added that he focused on US crime stories and that the information search team who worked on the article about Southport, “were all fired”.
On Tuesday, Pakistani police said that they had arrested the local freelance journalist who worked at Channel3 Now after he was accused of disseminating fake news that triggered widespread anti-Muslim riots in the UK.
Local police chief Faisal Kamran said, Asif was taken into custody in Lahore. His social media accounts have now been disabled. Asif denies the charge, saying he only copied and pasted the news from a social media post.
Local media reported that he had been handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency.
Police sources told Dawn, a Pakistani daily, that their own investigations had led them to conclude Asif was not the source of the false news, and he had copied and pasted it from a pre-existing social media post.
