Type of site | News aggregator; fake news website |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Lahore, Pakistan |
| Launched | 2023 |
| Current status | Offline |
Channel3Now (also stylised as Channel3 NOW) was a website based in Pakistan which aggregated crime news while presenting itself as an American-style TV channel. [1] [2] Launched in 2023, [3] the website was shut down in August 2024 after sharing fake news which fuelled riots in the United Kingdom. [1] On August 20, 2024, a person linked to the website was arrested in Pakistan on charges of cyberterrorism; [4] the case was later dropped.
Channel3Now was registered as a website with a domain server located in Ireland on 15 June 2023. [5] According to Voice of America, the earliest archived versions of the Channel3Now site date back to September 2023. [6] An OSINT investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue indicated that an earlier version of the website was hosted at an address in Pakistan. [7] [5]
The website was previously known as Fox3 Now, Fox5 Now and Fox7 Now, leading to a legal dispute with the unrelated Fox Media LLC. [6] In August 2023, an arbitration ruling ordered the website to transfer those domains to Fox Media LLC. [6]
In July 2024, following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Channel3Now posted a video on its Rumble account falsely claiming that the perpetrator had been identified as a Chinese man. It also posted baseless claims on X/Twitter about the criminal history of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a white man who was later identified as the suspect and confirmed to have no criminal history. [5]
On 29 July 2024, Channel3Now posted a false article claiming that the 17-year-old charged in the Southport stabbing was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat a year earlier. It also claimed he was under surveillance by MI6. [5] [2] The article was widely quoted in viral posts on social media.
On 31 July 2024, the website issued an apology, blaming its "misleading information" on the riots on a now-dismissed team of employees. [8] [9] Its YouTube channel and associated Facebook pages were suspended. [10]
On 14 August 2024, an investigation by ITV News at Ten identified a person from Lahore, Pakistan as working for Channel3Now. The individual denied being responsible for the article, claimed he was merely a freelancer, and said three or four people were fired for publishing the false information. Channel3Now's website was shut down later that day. [1]
On 20 August 2024, the same person was arrested by Pakistani police for spreading false information. [11] The case was dropped six days later after police said they were unable to find evidence that the accused was the originator of the fake news article. [12]
In the aftermath of the riots, British media speculated that Channel3Now might be linked to Russian disinformation efforts, [10] with a former head of MI6 endorsing the theory in an interview with The Telegraph . [3] However, a BBC News investigation on 8 August 2024 found no evidence to back up the claim. [2]
One source of this theory had been the presence of Russian-language content in the history of its YouTube channel. According to Channel3Now, it had purchased a former Russian-language YouTube channel and changed its name, initially posting video content related to Pakistan. [2]