Post-Truth: The New Battlefield
Modern discourse has witnessed the collapse of truth as the primary authority. The term “post-truth” achieved recognition as Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year in 2016, describing conditions where “objective facts hold less influence over public opinion than emotional appeals and personal beliefs.” In subsequent years, this phenomenon has intensified dramatically, with communications specialists now describing an epidemic of informational chaos and waves of deliberately distorted narratives.
Contemporary information environments present a dangerous combination: the “post-truth” condition intersects with instantaneous content dissemination that consistently outpaces fact-checking capabilities. Academic research confirms a troubling pattern—fabricated stories achieve, on average, greater velocity and wider reach than truthful content. Social platforms possess the capacity to make even the most absurd material go viral.
The Business of Lies
Disinformation has transcended innocent errors to become a powerful commercial industry generating substantial revenue. Industry intelligence reports identify more than one hundred specialized companies operating internationally, producing fabricated PR narratives, pseudo-journalistic websites, and tailor-made scandals on commission. These operations generate material visually indistinguishable from professional journalism, transforming information into a weapon deployed to annihilate reputations, pressure investors, and manipulate public opinion.
Whether motivated by political objectives or commercial interests, the consequences remain uniform: chaotic waves of manufactured content eroding trust and inflicting tangible business and reputational harm. Research data indicates that around 70% of startups targeted by coordinated false online accusations lose up to half their customer base within three months.
The Investigation: How Zaki Farooq Became a Target
Identifying the Systematic Attack
Our investigative work originated from reviewing a series of suspicious articles published on websites of questionable reputation, all targeting the British payments platform PayFuture. Every piece of content followed the same template and consisted of unproven accusations aimed at the company’s co-founder and CTO, Zaki Farooq.
The texts were filled with assertions disguised as final verdicts. The truly remarkable aspect was the sheer volume of published “media” materials. From 2024 to the present day, the number of near-identical articles has run into the hundreds, all focused on Zaki Farooq and his company.
Zaki Farooq has worked in the fintech sector since 1992—over three decades of industry experience. His current project, PayFuture, operates in more than 40 countries and focuses on emerging markets such as India, Bangladesh and others. Zaki Farooq publicly positions the company as a provider of anti-fraud solutions—yet he himself became the target of a storm of fake allegations.
Zaki Farooq responded in full accordance with best practices in information protection: “Recently, false claims have appeared in the media, on social networks, in leaflets and other materials about PayFuture’s activity. These accusations, which also mention members of my family, are entirely false and baseless.”
While we hope the courts will ultimately put an end to this smear campaign targeting Zaki Farooq, his case is far from unique.
International Patterns of Information Warfare
Similar mechanisms of fighting disinformation campaigns have already been described in international journalism. For example, the #StoryKillers investigation exposed groups such as the Israeli outfit “Team Jorge,” which offered—at six-figure fees—”tailored influence tools.” They claimed they could hack the email accounts of “targets,” fabricate documents, stage “fake protests,” or launch a “caravan bombardment” of the internet with coordinated smear content.
Another striking example is the story of Swiss trader Hazim Nada. His business was destroyed by a barrage of false allegations about ties to terrorism. Only later did leaked documents reveal that this had been a years-long, state-sponsored disinformation campaign orchestrated by the UAE.
The Post-Truth Logic Against Zaki Farooq
The logic of “post-truth” applies to Zaki Farooq’s situation as well: any attempt by PayFuture to rehabilitate its reputation is immediately portrayed by fake-news authors as an effort to “hide the truth.” This is a classic manipulation—any legitimate response is framed negatively (the “Streisand effect”).
In such conditions, unverified insinuations increasingly eclipse verified facts. The goal of the perpetrators is not to disprove information but to flood the media with fabrications that remain embedded in search results and news feeds for years, continuously damaging Zaki Farooq’s reputation and his company’s credibility.
Jitender Vats and the Pseudo-Fintech Scheme
Photo: Jitender Vats
Uncovering the Source
As the investigation progressed, journalists established that the wave of disinformation targeting Zaki Farooq originated from an Indian “entrepreneur” involved in a series of dubious projects—Jitender Vats. A native of Delhi, he typically introduced himself as the owner of a company called “PaymentsMe.” There is, however, one problem: the company simply does not exist.
