SHANGLA: Fake social media accounts are spreading disinformation and hate among the communities besides defaming people while there is no forum available in the district where the affected people could file their complaints.

Faisal Zeb is amn elected public representative from Shangla’s PK-24 constituency. A screen grab of his official Facebook page was uploaded on socialstating: “He is thankful to the party for awarding the tehsil nazim ticket to his brother Tahir Zeb.” However, the post was actually not shared by him.

“I was contacted by party colleagues and they congratulated me when the post got viral on the social media, but I was unaware of it,” the lawmaker told this scribe.

It is not a single case in the district but it has become a routine that honourable and respected persons are being targeted by fake account holders on social media.

Attaullah is a former councillor from Bisham. He is going to initiate a case of defamation against an individual, who shared fake and fabricated posts against him from different fake pages of Facebook.

“I am fed up. I have also identified that person through an expert and gathered evidence against him. He shares fake and hate speech against me and my younger brother on the social media from fake pages,” he said.

According to Federal Investigation Agency website, more than 4,000 cybercrime cases of fake online accounts, hate speech, hacking, online financial fraud and illegal SIM cards were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year and action was taken against the violators of law.

Recently, a video of Haji Abdul Munim, a former provincial minister was edited and uploaded on social media to defame him among the residents of Titwalan. He said that edited video was made viral by some people to defame him in the public and attempted to create hate among the people of Titwalan against him.

“Social media these days has become a tool for people to quickly defame an honourable person of the society and share stuff without verification,” he said.

He said if this practice was not stopped through legal action, it might lead the society to a disaster because the local tribal system would not tolerate such activities.

Bakhzada was assistant education officer and has political affiliation with PML-N. He was killed after a clash between two groups in Maira area of Bisham in Shangla in 2019.

The clash was erupted due to a Facebook post in which members of two tribes argued with each other that led to armed clash.

Farhad Ali, a police official in Bisham, said that he received over a dozen complaints about different fake accounts that were submitted to FIA cybercrime wing.

Abid Yar, president of Shangla Coalminer Association, said that their organisation was accused by fake accounts for many times. He said that law existed in the country but it was needed to implementation it to control and discourage circulation of fake and fabricated information on social media.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022