Pakistani Freelancer Arrested for Cyber Terrorism Over Fake News Fueling UK Riots

Pakistan's top investigation agency has arrested Farhan Asif, a web developer, for allegedly spreading disinformation that incited race-motivated riots in the UK. The riots erupted after false online claims about a Muslim refugee's involvement in a stabbing incident. The UK had requested Pakistan's assistance in investigating the matter.

Pakistan's top investigation agency on Wednesday arrested a web freelancer under cyber terrorism charges for his alleged role in disseminating the disinformation that led to race-motivated riots across the UK following the stabbing of three young girls last month.

The riots broke out in the north-west England town of Southport after false claims over the UK-born teenage male suspect being a Muslim refugee who arrived illegally into the country on a small boat recently spread like wildfire online.

Farhan Asif — a freelance web developer associated with the Channel3Now platform that is blamed for posting the disinformation — has been arrested from his Defence House Authority residence in Lahore following the request of the British government to look into the matter.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Wednesday that it registered a case against Asif, a father of two, under sections 9 (glorification of offence) and 10A (cyber terrorism) of PECA (Prevention of Electronic Crimes).

A copy of the FIR available with PTI says the suspect uploaded an article on his website www.channel3now.com, with the title '17-year-old Ali Al Shakati arrested in connection with a stabbing incident in Southport England.' The FIA says the said article contained a false claim about the arrest of a Muslim asylum seeker by police in the fatal stabbings of three young girls at a holiday dance party in Southport on July 29.

'The false name widely shared on social media spurred the far-right section into violent rioting. Asif admitted to providing misleading information to BBC regarding his accomplices in an attempt to divert blame to others,' it says.

The FIA said it raided Asif's residence along with police and arrested him.

A senior FIA official told PTI that the Pakistan government might consider handing the suspect over to Britain if it requested his extradition because it is a 'very serious matter.' Recent reports aired by UK media identified a little-known platform, Channel3Now, as being the source of the disinformation that claimed the British-born 17-year-old suspect was a Muslim immigrant who had arrived in the UK on a boat.

However, the assertion by UK broadcaster ITV News that a Pakistani individual was the originator of the false news story has been questioned, both by local law enforcement and other UK media outlets.

The investigators believe that Asif was not the first source of this spurious news but copy-pasted it from a social media post.

They say the disinformation was first published by kossyderrickent.com, a little-known tabloid on July 29. The tabloid posts reports about celebrities and trending topics in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the US, Zimbabwe and India.

The disinformation was then shared by a UK-based woman who has previously been involved in spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and climate change on social media accounts.

The FIA said Asif, upon realising the mistake, issued an apology and deleted the post from all social media accounts, but the disinformation kept gaining traction as it kept being shared by other users and garnering views online.

Channel3Now regularly publishes sensational news stories under the pretense of being an American-style TV channel.

(With inputs from agencies.)