Dubai: Pakistani police have arrested Farhan Asif, a 32-year-old freelance web developer, and charged him with cyber terrorism for allegedly spreading misinformation that contributed to widespread rioting in British cities earlier this month.
Imran Kishwar, Deputy Inspector General of Investigations in Lahore, confirmed Asif’s identity. Asif is accused of disseminating false information via YouTube and Facebook about a British teenager involved in a stabbing attack on July 29, which resulted in the deaths of three girls and injuries to ten others at a dance class in Northwest England, according to the Associated Press.
Asif was linked to a website that published a false name for the suspect in Southport and falsely claimed he was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by small boat.
The article, which appeared on Channel3Now shortly after the attack, was widely circulated in viral social media posts, BBC said. The false information claimed that the suspect had a name that suggested the teen was Muslim.
"He is a 31-year-old software engineer with no journalism credentials, apart from running the Channel3Now website, which served as a source of income for him," a senior official at Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Initial investigations indicate that his sole intent was to make money through clickbait content."
Asif appeared at a Lahore district court on Wednesday charged with cyber terrorism and was remanded to custody for one day, the official added.
On Tuesday, police in Lahore said they had questioned Asif about the article.
Asif said he had written it based on information copied from a UK-based social media account without verifying it, a police officer told the BBC.
Mosque attacked
Asif said that he ran the website alone. 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.
Channel3Now, 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.
Apology
The site’s editor-in-chief posted an apology July 31 for “the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3NOW. We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.”
But the false reports were widely disseminated and are blamed for fuelling 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.
Police have handed over the case to the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency, which handles cases relating to the cyber terrorism. It was unclear if Britain had requested his extradition.
Origin of misinformation
Asif has no previous criminal record or suspicious transaction history, the police said.
Pakistan’s English daily The Dawn, while citing an unnamed police officer, reported that the disinformation was first published on July 29 by kossyderrickent.com, a little-known tabloid, which posts reports about celebrities and trending topics in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the US, Zimbabwe and India.
According to the officer, the fake news was later shared by a UK-based woman, who has previously been involved in spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and climate change on X.
Her X account also seems to be inactive, with the last post being made on August 7.
