Farhan Asif is a 31-year-old software program engineer with no journalism credentials, an official stated. (File)
Lahore:
A Pakistani man appeared in court docket Wednesday to face fees of cyber terrorism after allegedly spreading disinformation on his clickbait web site thought to have fuelled anti-immigration riots in Britain.Â
Farhan Asif was accused of publishing an article on his Channel3Now web site falsely claiming {that a} Muslim asylum seeker was suspected in a lethal knife assault on kids in the UK.Â
UK authorities have blamed on-line misinformation for sparking days of riots which focused mosques and motels housing asylum seekers in addition to cops and different properties.
“He’s a 31-year-old software program engineer with no journalism credentials, other than operating the Channel3Now web site, which served as a supply of earnings for him,” a senior official at Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Company instructed AFP on situation of anonymity.
“Preliminary investigations point out that his sole intent was to generate profits via clickbait content material.”
Asif appeared at a Lahore district court docket on Wednesday charged with cyber terrorism and was remanded to custody for at some point, the official added.
The article with the false info was revealed on Channel3Now simply hours after the assault and was extensively cited in viral social media posts.
Greater than a dozen English cities and cities noticed unrest and riots after the July 29 knife assault that killed three ladies throughout a dance class in Southport.
The person charged with homicide and tried homicide over the stabbing spree, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain to folks who hail from Rwanda, an overwhelmingly Christian nation.
Officers have blamed far-right parts for serving to to fire up the dysfunction.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
