Fact check: Fake screenshot of purported Dawn story circulates on social media

Published January 9, 2026
The image circulating on social media.
The image circulating on social media.

A fake screenshot purporting to show the headline of a Dawn story has been circulating on social media, it emerged on Friday. The headline is fake and no such story has been published by Dawn.

The screenshot shows a headline that claims Parliament must pay a large sum of money to any individual who invests in an artificial intelligence platform.

The headline of the fake news article states: “The Parliament of Pakistan has been obliged to pay Rs6o lakh to every individual who starts investing in the state-backed artificial intelligence platform called Quantum AI, beginning with as little as Rs70,000.”

The headline’s length and formatting, particularly the words in red, do not conform to Dawn’s style guide.

Further, the URL displayed at the top of the page is not that of Dawn’s website.

Additionally, the data below the masthead is from October 2025, suggesting that the fabricated headline has been grafted over an old screenshot of Dawn’s website.

Dawn urges its readers to be wary of attempts to defraud them and always verify information directly from our website.

Earlier this week, a webpage was found to be impersonating Dawn, claiming that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had supposedly criticised the Punjab government over poor governance and rising crime.

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