Summary The Senator's mistake caused him much criticism on social media. Photo courtesy: Reuters
(Web Desk) - Senator Rehman Malik recently fell victim to fake news, and ridicule, on Sunday after the well-known politician tweeted a reply to a completely fake parody account of US President Donald Trump.
On Sunday, Senator Malik tweeted to "Trump": "Mr President, here are the ground realities for your kind consideration."
The operators of the parody account quickly pointed out the Senator’s mistake and also were kind enough to point him to the correct address of Trump’s Twitter account.
Senator, with all due respect this is a parody account you can find our real "President" at @realDonaldTrump
— Donald J. Trump (@RealPresidentDT) August 6, 2017
However, the Pakistani public were neither kind nor respectful in their response to the Senator s error and many social media users openly asked Malik that how could he make such an obvious mistake. One user went so far as to tell the senator to hand over his account to someone with more sense so that such incidents do not repeat themselves.
Don t make us ashamed it s a parody account of Mr Trump . I think you should hand over your Twitter account to a sensible person
— King Ahmed Raza (@KingAhmedRaza) August 6, 2017
Are you dim
— Brandon Wilkins (@BrandonUSA3) August 6, 2017
A few commentators though appeared to be more amused than angry as they replied to the Senator.
Lol.. sir u r tagging parody account!! U r unbeliveable!!
— Mubashar Mirza (@Mubasharmmirza) August 6, 2017
Parody account tagged !! pic.twitter.com/9Rw4qAX4uI
— Adil (@aafm__) August 6, 2017
This is not the first time that politicians in Pakistan have been unable to differentiate between fake and real news.
In December last year an international incident was caused when Khawaja Asif, who was acting as the Defense Minister during the time, issued a vicious official response to a fake news story in which an Israeli defense minister was threatening to use a nuclear weapon on Pakistan.
Fake news has become a rapidly emerging problem in recent years and social media sites like Facebook are now attempting to introduce more stringent measures to deal with it.
