Bhutto son victim of Facebook hoax

Posted By Adam Lewis Thursday, January 3, 2008 - 10:55 AM Share

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, I posted about a British MP who had his Facebook profile suspended because the site's operators thought the page was a fake. And now it seems that a fake Facebook profile of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of the late Benazir Bhutto and the new chairman of her party, tricked journalists around the globe into reporting false information provided on the page. Zardari's father was quick to claim that the fake profile was created by the Pakistani government in an effort to discredit his son, but a cyber prankster later took credit for authoring the page.

If the journalists who reported the false information watched more TV, they might have guessed that the page was a fake. As it turns out, many of the controversial quotes about Islam supposedly posted by Zardari were taken directly from the series "The West Wing."

EXPLORE:INTERNET, PAKISTAN

Passport, FP’s flagship blog, brings you news and hidden angles on the biggest stories of the day, as well as insights and under-the-radar gems from around the world.