Fake Facebook post posing as Dawn.com attempts to mislead public

[HAIDER]

A fake social media post doctored to pose as Dawn.com surfaced on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday and has remained in circulation on the platforms till the filing of this report.

The fake post, posted on the Facebook page 'Defensive Offence', attempts to mislead the public by suggesting that Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has been "possibly infected" with Covid-19 and falsely claims that he is under self-quarantine.

The doctored image, which features an image of Gen Bajwa and copies elements of Dawn.com's social media and Facebook posts layout, has also been shared on Instagram by an account titled 'Defensive Offence'.

A caption accompanying the post on Facebook wrongly states that the army chief "has been out of any public appearance since past many days".

In fact, Gen Bajwa paid a visit to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad on Wednesday (today) where officials briefed him on the coronavirus situation.

The post was shared on Facebook at 4:58pm on Tuesday.

Dawn.com contacted Facebook immediately when the fake post came to its notice. However, no action was taken by the tech giant till the filing of this report.

The post can be easily judged to be fake considering stylistic deviations from Dawn.com's social media updates.

For example, multiple words (that are not proper nouns) in the headline of the post start with letters in uppercase, which is against Dawn's style, as can be seen on any story on our website.

There is also a full stop at the end of the headline, a practice not employed in news stories on Dawn.com and a majority of news organisations.

Moreover, the post refers to Gen Bajwa as "Pakistan Army Chief"; being a Pakistan-based newspaper, Dawn refers to Gen Bajwa as Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa or Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Past attempts
This is not the first attempt to mislead the public by circulating fake news using the Dawn brand.

In October 2018, a fake screenshot doctored to pose as a Dawn.com news article attempted to mislead the public by suggesting that PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz was expecting and falsely claimed that "Dawn news" had obtained her medical reports.

Earlier in August that year, another screenshot of a fake news story falsified to look like an article on Dawn.com had surfaced on social media, in an attempt to mislead the public by implying that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Faisal Vawda had withdrawn a petition against the alleged corruption of Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar.

In a similar occurrence, in June 2018, a fake Facebook post screenshot doctored to pose as Dawn.com was shared on social media. It attempted to misinform the public and stakeholders by suggesting that Afghanistan had accepted the Durand Line as an official border.

The doctored image had led to the Afghan National Security Council (NSC) issuing a press release that mistakenly assumed the post was legitimate.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1551373/fake-facebook-post-posing-as-dawncom-attempts-to-mislead-public

 

[Haris Ali2140]

Indians as usual.

 

[Path-Finder]

dawn is already out of hand, why is this paper not taken care of? comrades need to sent packing to north korea.

 

[TsAr]

dawn is already out of hand, why is this paper not taken care of? comrades need to sent packing to north korea.

what is dawn's fault in all this, they have already exposed this as fake.

 

[Mrc]

I have doubt that it was not dawn to start with

There is a daily thread on anti Islam anti Pakistan agenda of this news paper

They are completely out of control

 

[fisher1]

I don't know how people can fall for obvious fake like this.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Self-harming by Dawn in a desperate bid for attention.

 

[zeeshe100]

this indian channel defensive offense is a propaganda channel made only against Pakistan to promotes fake news against Pakistan .according to them they are doing 5th generation war against the enemies of india.

 

[zeeshe100]

few days back same shit channel was saying that general bajwa is on world tour with his top generals and he doesn't care about Pakistani public

 

[masterchief_mirza]

few days back same shit channel was saying that general bajwa is on world tour with his top generals and he doesn't care about Pakistani public

They're idiots then. If they malign Dawn, they're harming Indian interests.

 

[Old School]

Dawn will create a clone site themselves and deny it at any given chance.

 

[Pakistan Ka Beta]

Dawn is a joke . Check Past attemps . We all remember Dawn leaks , Borris Johnson death and Dawn CEO interview against ISI n Army .

 

[Path-Finder]

what is dawn's fault in all this, they have already exposed this as fake.

have you been hibernating?

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

Even if he gets Infected Allah will heal him prayers of pakistaniz arw with him and our Creator is merciful and protective of the Good men.

Being infected with this virus covid19 is not the end 80% people recover fully. Without any medication.

 

[xyx007]

We know very well who is doing this. We always learn a new type of psycho-social dynamics in fifth-generation warfare. It seems like the working of Dawn itself to portray itself as a "victim". Nice is Dawn an Indian News channel? one time I met with one Jewish a kind of Mossad , he told me he love to read Dawn every day to get to know about Pakistan going in the right direction or not, isn't funny ?