The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is probing the alleged role of a Pakistani national in spreading misinformation on his news website that fueled riots targeting Muslims and other ethnic communities in the United Kingdom this month, a senior police official confirmed on Wednesday.
Farhan Asif, a 32-year-old resident of Lahore, is accused of disseminating misinformation on his digital platform that the 17-year-old British-born suspect in the July 29 stabbing deaths of three girls in Southport was an immigrant and a Muslim.
As misinformation about the suspect traveled online, angry far-right crowds attacked the British Muslim community at mosques and asylum centers throughout the UK in early August. As per various media reports, Black and Asian Britons were also targeted in the week-long riots as the British government cracked down on the violence, arresting over 1,100 people.
Lahore’s Deputy Inspector for General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran told Arab News police interviewed Asif after it received a video from British channel ITV regarding his alleged role in spreading the misinformation on his website named Channel3Now.
“He was not arrested, just being interviewed and then we handed him to the FIA to probe,” Kamran explained, adding that police did not have the capacity to deal with this type of cybercrime.
“In that interview, we tried to vet his travel history, accounts, and other things but what we understood was that this is not the purview of the police,” he said. “It is better that the case should be referred to the FIA.”
The Lahore police official said the FIA would take action against Asif depending upon their findings. He said UK authorities had not contacted Pakistan so far regarding the probe, adding that Pakistani police had decided to look into the matter as it concerns the country and could have implications on the Pakistani community in the UK.
Kamran said Asif had revealed during his interview that the misinformation originated from a Russian website which was shared by a woman in the UK. It was then picked there from Asif and published on Channel3Now.
“Obviously he was the cause of amplifying this misinformation as it went viral,” Kamran said.
The police official said Asif admitted to police he owned Channel3Now and had reposted the Russian content there to generate traffic. Kamran said Asif had explained he had done so as the number of advertisements he receives from search engine giant Google depends on the volume of traffic the website attracts. “It was a trending topic in the UK, so he said he posted on his website to gain traffic,” Kamran said.
