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Pakistani man living in Australia describes ‘nightmare’ of being labelled as Bondi attacker

Digital media | The Guardian · Josh Taylor in Melbourne and Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi · last updated

A Pakistani man living in Australia has spoken of his “deep trauma” and said his life had become a “nightmare” after his photo was widely circulated on social media falsely labelling him as one of the shooters in the Bondi beach terror attack.

Naveed Akram, 30, a who runs his own business in New South Wales, found himself at the centre of a storm of misinformation that began to spread following the deadly shooting on Sydney’s Bondi beach that left 16 people dead.

 

Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity

State of Play

In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug. 

Fact-checking and its detractors


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