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

A fake social media post manipulated to pose as Dawn.com It appeared on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday and has remained in circulation on platforms until the release of this report.

The fake post, posted on the & # 39; Defensive Offense & # 39; Facebook page, attempts to mislead the public by suggesting that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has been "possibly infected" with Covid-19 and falsely claims which is under quarantine.

The manipulated image, which features an image of Gen Bajwa and copies elements of Dawn.comThe design of the social networks and Facebook posts has also been shared on Instagram by an account titled & # 39; Defensive Offense & # 39 ;.

A legend accompanying the Facebook post wrongly claims that the army chief "has been out of any public appearance for many days."

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

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

Dawn.com He contacted Facebook immediately when the fake post reached his notice. However, the tech giant did not take any action until the release of this report.

The post can easily be considered false considering the stylistic deviations of Dawn.comUpdates from social networks.

For example, several words (that are not proper nouns) in the publication title begin with capital letters, which is against DawnIt's style, as you can see in any story on our website.

There is also an endpoint at the end of the headline, a practice not used in the news about Dawn.com and most news organizations.

Furthermore, the publication refers to Gen Bajwa as "Chief of the Pakistan Army"; being a Pakistan based newspaper, Dawn Gen Bajwa is referred to as Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa Army Chief or Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa Army Chief of Staff.

Past attempts

This is not the first attempt to deceive the public by circulating false news using the Dawn brand.

In October 2018, a fake screenshot modified to pose as a Dawn.com The 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.

In early August of that year, another screenshot of a fake news forged to look like an article about Dawn.com He had appeared on social media in an attempt to mislead the public by implying that Pakistan's Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Faisal Vawda had withdrawn a petition against the alleged corruption of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar.

Similarly, in June 2018, a fake screenshot of a Facebook post modified to pose as Dawn.com It was shared on social networks. He attempted to misinform the public and stakeholders by suggesting that Afghanistan had accepted the Durand Line as the official border.

The altered image had prompted the Afghanistan National Security Council (NSC) to issue a press release that mistakenly assumed that the post was legitimate.