Fact-check: Screenshots of WhatsApp conversations between Pakistani journalists, media owners and politicians are fake

Several social media accounts linked to PTI allege that screenshots of private conversations between journalists, media owners and politicians have been leaked

Geo Fact-Check

Updated Friday Nov 18 2022

Several social media accounts linked to the PTI allege that screenshots of private conversations between journalists, media owners and politicians have been leaked.

The screenshots are fake.

Claim

Social media users have posted multiple screenshots of an alleged WhatsApp conversation between reporters, television channel owners and politicians. In some conversations, reporters are being asked to spin the facts about former prime minister Imran Khan.

The screenshots have been retweeted by the senior leadership of PTI, including the former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.

Fact

The screenshots are fake.

Geo Fact Check reached out to the named journalists, politicians and media owners. They all denied any such conversation had taken place.

A closer look at the viral screenshots reveals that they all share the same WhatsApp backdrop, even when the conversation is between different sets of individuals.

Another thing that stands out as odd is that some of the screenshots have been prepared using a dual-sim phone, which most of the named individuals do not have.

The screenshots were shared on Twitter soon after Geo’s current affairs program, Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Saath, aired a WhatsApp exchange between Umar Farooq Zahoor and PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry, which was shared by Zahoor himself with the channel.

In the conversation, Chaudhry was discussing a business deal and cabinet proceedings with the businessman. To date, the WhatsApp exchange shown on Geo has not been denied by Chaudhry.