Social media platform Facebook has been conducting organized propaganda against Bangladesh for a long time. Now this propaganda is being carried out on another social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter). The Hindu community is being attacked in Bangladesh - basically, such false information is being spread there. The rate of opening new IDs on ‘X’ to spread misinformation has increased by 214 percent.
The rate of spreading such misinformation has increased abnormally after the fall of the Awami League government in the student-public uprising. Such propaganda is being spread more from accounts of users based in India or of Indian origin.
A research report published last week by the international organization Tech Global Institute has highlighted this information.
More than 1,000 posts on politics in Bangladesh on X were collected on a random basis in the four months from July 26 to November 26. The report was prepared by analyzing these. The Meta third-party fact-check rating framework was used to verify the misinformation. The report was prepared by Shams Wahid Shahat, Apan Das and Mohammad Arafat.
The report said that in addition to religious and communal incitement, users have been spreading false information about the interim government. In August, the disinformation campaign was most active on social media platforms, which accounted for about 77 percent. In September, 35 percent of the content was shared on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter combined. In October, 23 percent was shared on Facebook and YouTube. In November, 71 percent was shared through private messaging apps like Viber, Messenger and WhatsApp. 74 percent of the new accounts posted false information. 24 percent published irrelevant information. And 1 percent of the posts called for change and violence. In many cases, the verified mark was used to mislead everyone. Among the top 20 hashtags, the most were #SaveHindusInBangladesh and #BangladeshiHindusGenocide.
Oxford University Visiting Policy Fellow Sabhanaz Rashid Dia shared the report on Facebook and wrote, "Social media has been used to spread religious and communal misinformation and incitement in Bangladesh." The report mentions some of the methods used to spread misinformation, saying that Russia and China follow such methods to spread fake information. Information was spread using a picture of an incident at Sir Salimullah Medical, that Sharia law has been declared in Bangladesh. Islamists are harassing students in classrooms. Fact checkers in Bangladesh said that the person in the picture is named Zubair Ali. He is mentally unstable and not from Hizb ut Tahrir. He was later arrested. Similarly, on October 13, a picture of two young women was spread from an ID named Radharman Das, claiming that two Hindu women were brutally murdered on their way back from Vijaya Dashmi. Later, various media reports in Bangladesh said that two students from Faridpur named Pooja Biswas and Ratna Saha died of poisoning (drinking toxic alcohol) after returning from a puja festival. On November 5, some videos were shared from Baba Banaras ID on November 6 regarding the incident in Hazari Gali in Chattogram, claiming that 50 Hindus were killed in the attack by Jamaat and the army. Fact-checking organization Rumor Scanner reported that some people were injured in a protest in Chattogram. No deaths occurred. In addition, when information was spread that 27,000 Hindus were killed in three months, fact-checkers said that the information was false.
Misinformation was spread that terrorist groups had ties with the interim government. Indian media claimed that bans on militant groups like JMB and Huji had been lifted. Later, the Home Affairs Adviser said that such an incident did not happen. Similarly, advisers Nahid Islam, Sheikh Bashir Uddin, Mustafa Sarwar Farooqui and Mahfuz Alam were also accused of being involved with extremists and Pakistani militants in X and some Indian media.
Fact checkers said that there was no evidence for these allegations. Disinformation is being spread in Indian media and X on various issues including the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das. Glamorous pictures and videos are used for this. All the information is fake.
Analysis has shown that there is a lot of content that incites Indian right-wing or ultra-nationalist ideology. These include content shared or direct quotes from Indian right-wing media, such as Republic Bangla or UP India, where the use of Hindi is high. Indian politicians are tagged in these posts.
Tech Global said that the involvement of foreigners in the recent increase in disinformation surrounding Bangladesh is worrying. Although the Bangladeshi incident is small compared to the disinformation campaigns of countries like China, Iran, Russia, and India, in the current context, it is necessary to emphasize national security and foreign policy, taking into account geopolitics, to effectively combat these disinformation epidemics.