Misquoting the living: Mahira Khan, Anwar Maqsood, Ansar Abbasi and Tehmina Janjua get a taste

By
Abdullah Niazi
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2
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Ansar Abbasi has got a beef to pick. The senior journalist recently shared a quote attributed to him on twitter and asked an essential question, could anybody prove it was him please? Abbasi seems to be one of the most recent victim of the false attribution of words to a person.

And he isn’t even the only one.

Just this week starlet Mahira Khan was outraged after Dunya News managed to make up a quote by the actress. Mahira was lucky enough to pick up on it and use her own significant social media presence to tweet out her rejection.

After her it was the turn of Anwar Maqsood. More fed up than both Mahira and Abbasi combined, he recorded a video practically begging people not to believe everything people chalked up to him, especially the many fake twitter accounts operating under his name.

What is worrisome is when these things are not picked up. Even more so when things may have serious implications. The fourth case from this week comes from the office of the foreign secretary herself, Tehmina Janjua. A fake twitter account by her name had offered taking in Rohingya Muslims turned back by Bangladesh. An incident that left the relevant authorities scrambling for refusals.

 

 

 

The matter of misquotation and false attribution is as old as language itself, it was a major reason for the ahadith being compiled very early in Islamic history, despite which their individual validity remains hotly debated. But with the existence of the internet and digital technology, propagation and promulgation is on a much larger scale, which means the profit motives are on a much larger scale. The amount a fake twitter account can generate is surprisingly significant.

Most people are fond of cyber screeching (in all caps) and sharing cleverly made and aesthetically pleasing info graphics with conveniently placed quotes that will evoke some sense of emotion, or perhaps give credence to their views. The even bigger problem? These graphics are ridiculously easy to make.

Because of this, a major problem of the modern age is verification. What with the internet being a platform so open that everyone has a voice, and can take up any voice they want to, it is rare to find facts thoroughly researched or confirmed.

False quotes are thus attributed to any and every one: popes, muftis, politicians, historical figures, legends, authors and God knows who else. Perhaps one of the more well-known satirical takes on this is the Abraham Lincoln meme, where next to a picture of Lincoln is the alleged statement from him “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.” – Abraham Lincoln.

Another example was British-American comedian John Oliver’s show on the topic, which eventually resulted in a website called “Definitely real quotes” which generates false quotes in serious graphics at the click of a button, including ‘quotes’ from John Oliver himself.

For people long dead, it is both easier to make false quotes and to then confirm the truth. The problem arises when words are, quite literally, put in the mouths of people that are not only alive but are more localised figures than they are international ones.

When images of Anwar Maqsood, Ashfaq Ahmed, or Tariq Jameel next to quotes make rounds on whatsapp groups, facebook and twitter, especially about current issues, no one can tell whether it’s real or not. And unless an express denial comes up, no one can really be sure. But by the time it spreads and that does happen, it usually is a case of too little too late.

Taking him as an example, one cannot help but feel sorry for Ansar Abbasi. Retweeting an image of himself along with some words in Urdu, and a screen grab of Imran Khan on his CNN interview, Abbasi helplessly tweeted “meharbani ho gi koi bata dai yai sab mainay kab aur kahan kaha.”

Abbasi, in this case, was not only misquoted, but misquoted a lot. The graphic in question is not simply a few lines or a snarky one liner, it is an entire detailed paragraph. If Abbasi had not come out to deny it explicitly, it may just have been spreading without his knowledge and people believing it.

As for the others, you can just see how frustrated Mahira is with this, even if the story about her was later deleted. And as for Anwar Maqsood, the fact that an old man has to make a video urging people not to believe everything people say he said, that is just shameful.

And Tehmina Durrani? With her there is the little problem of people taking a fake account’s word as the truth having international implications.

It makes one wonder, if this can be done so easily, and words put in the mouth of figures people trust and depend on, what can a person actually believe in?

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