Dawn.com brand abused again on social media

JournalismPakistan.com | Published: 10 June 2020

A fake news screenshot claiming a missing F-16 has circulated on social media, misleading the public. Dawn.com refuted the claim, highlighting past incidents.

Summary

ISLAMABAD—A screenshot of a fake news story about a 'missing F-16' as if it was published on Dawn.com surfaced on social media Wednesday.

According to Dawn.com, the cropped fake screenshot shared on Twitter misled the public by saying that a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16 fighter jet has gone missing during a panic situation in Karachi.

However, Dawn said that specific grammatical and style differences pointed out the inauthenticity of the screenshot.

"The fake screenshot widely shared by Indian Twitterati has surfaced on the same day that Indian media reported "panic" in Karachi on Tuesday night following what they called were rumours of Indian Air Force fighters crossing the Line of Control (LoC)."

It was not the first attempt to mislead the public by circulating fake news using the Dawn brand. There were similar attempts in April and October 2018.

Key Points

A fake news story about a 'missing F-16' was shared on social media.
Dawn.com identified the screenshot as inauthentic based on style differences.
The incident coincided with rumors of Indian Air Force activity near Karachi.
This is not the first instance of the Dawn brand being misused online.
Previous fake news incidents occurred in April and October 2018.

Relevant Topics

Dawn.com

Fake News

Social Media

F-16

Misleading Information

PAF

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