Four-year-old fake news about Qatari princess captured with seven men resurfaces on social networks
A paper clipping is being circulated on social networks after old, Islamophobic tweets by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya targetting Arab women resurfaced and subsequently received flak from prominent Arab influencers. The clipping is a report published by DNA which is headlined, “Qatari Princess captured in Orgy with 7 guys”. It mentions a report by British paper Financial Times (FEET) and says, “Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa was captured having group sex with 7 guys at a hotel in London”. The exact same clipping, published by Twitter handle @TheSquind, has gathered more than 500 retweets. Nevertheless, @TheSquind has actually tagged Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the UAE royal family. Qassimi had just recently called-out an Indian nationwide working in Dubai for publishing racist and inequitable tweets against UAE.
In addition, it is being claimed in the report that when the Qatari Embassy in the UK was informed about the matter, they had actually used the media outlet $ 50 million to kill the story. Twitter manage Kishore K Swamy too published the clipping and said, “And she is the princess commemorated by Dmk it wing and single-source morons. Bloody paid project rats.”
Social media influencer Payal Rohtagi, who on numerous celebrations has actually been discovered spreading communally-charged false information, likewise tweeted the newspaper clipping with a message targeting journalist Nidhi Razdan.
The very same story was brought by Hindi day-to-day Amar Ujala in 2016.
Fact-check
With a Google search, Alt News discovered several reports which mentioned that the newspaper article is “fake”. A report published by on August 24, 2016, said, “A supposed scandal about Qatari princess which Financial Times, a British publication reported has been described ‘phony’. At the time of composing, a variety of report have opposed the Financial Times story– that has actually consequently vanished as several Google searches revealed.”
A Twitter search for the earliest post that had mentioned this alleged FEETreport exposed that a site named was among the earliest to cite it. The report published on this website doesn’t exist any longer. This supposed report was pointed out by numerous other shady sites.
One such site is. It’s a phony news site which had actually infamously released a piece of false information that resulted in Pakistan providing a nuclear warning to Israel. Fact-checking outlet says the site “does not have more than a nodding associate with realities, instead playing on nationalistic dream and conspiracy theory to develop disconcerting (and hence clickable and shareable) stories”. An archived version of the fake news story released by AWD News can be accessed here.
It may be kept in mind that AWD News while pricing estimate a supposed report by FT cited their source as another site called Middle East Press (archive).
Surprisingly, this short article by middleeastpress.com has actually also been deleted. This article too pointed out a supposed report by Financial Times, nevertheless, it brings no link.
Hence, it can be said with certainty that there exists no report by FEET which is claimed to have broken the story of a ‘Qatari princess caught with seven males’. Furthermore, among the earliest sites that cited this alleged FT report has a history of publishing fake news stories.
In an e-mail action to Mumbai-based English tabloid, then Editorial Assistant at FEET’s Newsroom Michael Lindsay had stated, “We understand that the short article pointed out by you was initially published on www.awdnews.com, which is not our site. The Financial Times is not accountable for incorrect short article published by AWD. Even more, it is not the case that the Financial Times has actually published any such news report, or been associated with any such occasions, as are pointed out in AWD’s incorrect post.”
Unassociated photo of an Arab businesswoman
Furthermore, the female whose picture is being shared as Qatari Princess ‘Sheikha Salwa’ is actually the Chief Operating Officer of Dubai-based Mazrui Holdings Alia Al Mazrouei. You can watch a video interview of her with Dubai-based news outlet Gulf News.
I am anticipating become part of the Jury for the MENA Effie Awards 2017. #menaeffie 17 pic.twitter.com/KGHBOko3TA
— علياء المزروعي (@AliaAlMazrouei) September 13, 2017
In conclusion, a four-year-old fake news story was restored by social media to vilify Princess Hend Al Qassimi of UAE.
[Update: Amar Ujala’s incorrect report was added to this fact-check on April 25, 2020.] The post Four-year-old fake news about Qatari princess caught with 7 men resurfaces on social networks appeared first on Alt News.
This content was originally published here.