Highlights:
- 83.7% rumors circulated in the last three months were elections-related
- 1,915 rumors circulated throughout 2023
- 1,400 rumors circulated throughout 2022
As Bangladesh is now adorned with election festivity, the opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has resorted to a malicious campaign of spreading propaganda on cyberspace, in an attempt to misguide public opinion.
It seems, failing to steer up its violent movement on the streets, the BNP has now opted for another dark conspiracy to create panic, mistrust, and confusion among people through the propaganda show on social media, especially on YouTube and Facebook.
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Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking platform based on Facebook and YouTube, revealed that at least 56 rumors about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been spreading online, mainly on YouTube, in last three months (October-December).
The second highest number of rumors were against different state agencies.
Of them, there were 24 rumors about the police, 18 on Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, 17 on diplomatic and different local and international organizations.
Of the total number of political rumors in the last three months of 2023, a staggering 83.7% were related to the general election.
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The highest (215) rumors were detected in December whereas 175 in November and 210 in October. Those are among 1,915 rumors circulated throughout last year. The annual figure in 2022 stood at 1,400.
Fact-checking platform Rumor Scanner’s head of operations, Sajjad Hossain Chowdhury, told media that the number of election-centric rumors have increased gradually since October.
“The rumors were circulated through fake photocards, and videos with misleading headlines and thumbnails on Facebook and YouTube,” he said.
The trend, he said, intensified to a large extent in December.
Fake News Floods Cyberspace to Create Confusion
Fake news, disinformation, misleading information, smear campaigns, and political propaganda on social media have been flooding social media centering the polls.
Press Xpress spotted a huge number of false claims that show Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned, PM reschedule election dates, PM apologizes to Khaleda Zia, the USA orders PM to resign and many more. However, these claims are all fake but consumed by thousands of people.
A YouTube Channel ‘Sabai Sikhi’ claimed that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned after apologizing to the BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Press Xpress scrutinize the claim and found that the YouTube channel used old photos and videos to spread the propaganda.
They used Somoy TV’s old footage dated on January 3, 2018 where Khaleda Zia seen to said that they will not participate any election under Sheikh Hasina.
In another rumor, a Facebook page posted a content claiming that PM Sheikh Hasina announced new election date and cancel January 7 as the election day.
We didn’t find any authentic sources in this video and the claim is fake as Sheikh Hasina continues her election campaign in full swing. The page used some old footages and picture to support their fake claim.
Verified Facebook pages are spreading false information or fake press releases, while boosted social media profiles were seen sharing news and photo cards of different fake media outlets.
Meta’s Policy to Counter Polls-Time Rumor
Meta (formerly known as Facebook Inc) on November 28 claimed tight monitoring of rumors as more than two billion people heading to the polls in elections across some of the world’s biggest democracies, including the US, and Bangladesh.
“Over many years, Meta has developed a comprehensive approach for elections on our platforms. With so many important elections approaching, we are setting out how the policies and safeguards we have established over time will apply in 2024,” it said.
Meta went on to say that it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security, with more than $20 billion invested in teams and technology in this area since 2016.
“While much of our approach has remained consistent for some time, we’re continually adapting to ensure we are on top of new challenges, including the use of Artificial Intelligence. We’ve also built the largest independent fact-checking network of any platform, with nearly 100 partners around the world to review and rate viral misinformation in more than 60 languages,” it added.
Government Initiative to Lessen Disinformation
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission says it in separate meetings with the Facebook, TikTok and Google authorities in August and September, 2023 instructed them to take necessary measures on the January 7 polls.
TikTok has announced the creation of a ‘Bangladesh Election Centre’ to deliver accurate election information for Bangladeshis only.
TikTok says the community guidelines provide specific policies to control the spread of false information, violence, and hate speech directly during elections. Eligibility of candidates, voter registrations, counting of ballots and results of elections, and many other issues will come under the policy. The platform will quickly remove misleading election-related information based on all norms.
Ashok Kumar Debnath, an additional secretary at the Election Commission, said that Meta (Facebook) had told them it would begin working to block misleading promotions. Any content the EC would deem inappropriate for the election would be taken down immediately, he said.
BTRC Commissioner Dr Mushfiq Mannan Chowdhury said, “There have been earlier instances of anarchy spreading through false information around elections. People use social media to spread them. This disturbs the peace in the country. But this time, Facebook and Google are on alert. We have been spoken to. They will quickly remove any content that contains rumors or violence.”
According to BTRC, currently, the number of internet users in the country is around 13 crore. More than 50 million people use Facebook.
On November 28, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said that spreading rumours through digital media will be dealt with under the [Cyber Security Act].
In January 2023, the minister ordered deputy commissioners to stay on guard about anyone spreading “rumours” through unregistered online portals, IPTV, or YouTube channels.
Shaping public opinion thru systematic disinformation
BNP’s cyber forces are intensifying their virtual propaganda campaign to shape public opinion in their favor, especially by demonizing the government and other state persons.
Their tactics include the use of fake profiles and the creation of deceptive FB pages impersonating the ruling government. Moreover, strategies like “thirst trapping”, a type of social media post intended to entice viewers sexually, are being used to build an audience before disseminating false information.
A recent investigation by a prominent national daily – based on the analysis of numerous posts on Facebook pages, groups, and messaging apps run by mostly unidentified administrators – reveals that BNP is investing substantial sums of money to propagate their manipulated narratives.
This sudden surge in spreading disinformation is particularly alarming at a time when the public needs reliable information to make well-informed decisions regarding the upcoming election.
