Skip to main content

The era of ‘fake news’ is upon us and we’re not referring to Donald Trump. The public’s insatiable appetite for breaking news, celebrity news, gossip and scandal has created a market for fodder and it’s not always palatable. Much too often it’s hearsay or gossip-mongering that find’s itself on the headlines, posing as credible news. Today’s controversy emerged when Dunya News shared a story on their website, claiming that Mahira Khan had said that ‘aged actresses should take rest now’. Dunya news apparently does this quite regularly and this time the actress took to twitter to refute all the claims made in the article.

“You guys need to take rest from making up quotes and stories using my name!” the actress wrote on her social media page, responding to a story that alleged Mahira of saying that “elder actresses should now take rest.”

Although the website later apologized for their ‘mistake’, they claimed that the news was taken from an Urdu newspaper, which –may or may not have – made up quotes.

Also read: Haute Exclusive: Hadiqa Kiani rubbishes false allegations

While the Raees actress isn’t the first celeb to be tangled in the malicious net of click bait, she definitely did the right thing by taking a stand. Mahira is one of the most polite and respectful stars around and one can vouch for the fact that she could never have said what she was accused of.

Shahjehan Saleem

The author is Contributing Editor at Something Haute as well as a professor in the Media Sciences department at SZABIST, Karachi. Socio-cultural theories and geography fill up the rest of his time.