How online disinformation fuels religious, ethnic and sociopolitical tensions during Bangladesh’s regime change

Over 70 percent of mis-and disinformation was debunked as completely false

Originally published on Global Voices

The post by Apon Das of Tech Global Institute was originally published on the TGI site and Prothom Alo on August 17, 2024. An edited version is published here with permission.

The month-long student-led mass movement that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was marred not only by violence, but also a surge in mis- and disinformation. Historically, the country’s former ruling party, the Awami League, has been reportedly involved with spreading false information; however, during this period, and since the prime minister’s ouster, there has been a marked increase in misleading information and propaganda from neighboring country, India.

This TechGlobal Institute (TGI) analysis examines a sample of 179 pieces of debunked mis- and disinformation between July 15 and August 9 based on data provided by six fact-checking organizations, to find key patterns, the degree of coordinated activities, and the sources and incentives behind them. False news on three social media platforms: Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) were reviewed. While Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has several accredited fact-checkers in Bangladesh (AFP, FactWatch and Boom), YouTube and X do not have a similar fact-checking program.

The prime minister’s resignation has been followed by a continuing period of instability and violence, the brunt of which was borne by minority communities through targeted attacks, killings, and vandalism of houses and places of worship. Ahmadiyya mosques, Hindu temples, and churches, among others, were targeted by arsonists and armed vandalizers in 205 attacks in at least 52 districts across the country. Dhaka, the country’s capital, witnessed a sharp rise in armed robberies as police was on strike from August 6–11. In response, clerics, students, and residents of different areas have gathered in front of minority-owned establishments in several places and initiated community neighborhood watch.

Diaspora Bangladeshis were a target audience

Bangladesh experienced a state-sanctioned nationwide complete internet shutdown between July 18 and 23, alongside blocking of major social media and messaging platforms, as well as a de facto media blackout. Although fixed-line internet was restored on July 23, mobile data was throttled from 4G to 2G until July 28, and social media and messaging platforms remained blocked for several days. Users in Bangladesh were accessing blocked platforms using VPN, and were exposed to a slew of disinformation about the ground situation, largely aimed at exacerbating confusion.

Despite Facebook remaining blocked between July 23 and 30, based on analysis using data from Meta Ad Library, at least USD 33,992 was spent on 1,986 politically-motivated advertisements, of which 97 percent were pro-government and aimed at blaming the opposition and “third parties” for violence during the student-led protests, despite media reports showing police brutality against students. The majority of the pages were traced back to Bangladesh, confirming that the admins were accessing VPN to run ads.

Over 70 percent of content was debunked as completely false

TGI analyzed 179 pieces of content debunked by six fact-checking organizations between July 15 and August 9. Out of the debunked content, 126 (70.4 percent) was rated False, 41 (22.9 percent) was rated Missing Context, 10 (5.6 percent) was rated Altered and 2 (1.1 percent) was rated as Partly False. A False rating indicates content that is entirely non-factual, or rumors, while Missing Context, Altered or Partly False are typically content that has some missing information, such as dates, numbers, or events, or a mix of true and false interpretations of something that has happened. Altered content would imply fake, or manipulated video, audio or visual content that has been modified using basic editing or AI tools and includes materials that were not conveyed by the subjects portrayed in the content.

Given low-literacy users, the majority of mis- and disinformation is shared using photos, videos and photo cards.

The majority of false narratives undermined the student-led movement

Rumors of death and rape are common during protests and social movements globally, fueled by widespread agitation and media sensationalism, and can significantly impact the dynamics of a protest and perceptions. In our analysis, we found 36 rumors related to the death and rape of student protesters. Examples include: 27 women students allegedly raped during the quota reform protests, 100 dead bodies were found and mass graves found at Shangshad Bhaban.

While most rumors claimed the death of protesters, a handful of members of the Chhatra League (student wing of Awami League), politicians, and police, were also subjects of death hoaxes. There were also several items claiming the death of former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

Of note, a photo card falsely bearing the logo of Prothom Alo, the country’s largest national daily, went viral, claiming that 1,700 people had been killed during the student movement. Using the logos of prominent media outlets to spread disinformation is a common tactic in Bangladesh and exacerbates confusion among the public.

Our analysis finds at least 16 percent of disinformation is shared using photo cards falsely bearing logos of popular mainstream media, such as Prothom Alo, Somoy TV, Independent TV, Jamuna TV, Channel 24, The Business Standard, and others.

In addition to death hoaxes, discrediting individual protestors was observed as a tactic to strategically question the credibility of the movement and deflect attention from the core issues. Examples include: Students were caught with weapon, drugs and money, Banned Jamaat-Shibir joining the movement with weapons and claims of sexual harassment by protestors.

Further, after the regime fell on August 5, a concerted disinformation campaign claimed that Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus (who now is the chief advisor of the interim government) had donated BDT 5,000 (USD 42) through bKash to everyone during the movement.

Coordinated disinformation about communal violence

There has been widespread violence against minorities in Bangladesh, and vandalism of places of worship and homes, leading to at least 232 reported deaths including police and Awami League members after the fall of the regime. However, there has also been a concerted effort by Bangladesh social media pages and Indian right-wing mainstream and social media to spread panic and exaggerate the types of attacks or its scale. This content uses old videos from a different event in the past, or modifies an existing video or photo using basic editing tools to portray scenes of anarchy and violent deaths of Hindu minorities. Some examples include: Rumors about the abduction of Hindu women, Muslim women tying up Hindu women to torture them, a Hindu cricketer’s house being set on fire, and outdated videos of a brutal murder from Andhra Pradesh, claiming it to be violence in Bangladesh.

This content was cross-posted on Facebook, YouTube and X, largely targeting diaspora Bangladeshis, Indians, and the broader international community using hashtags such as #SaveBangladeshiHindus, and in a coordinated manner. The narrative is consistent with the goal of portraying Bangladesh as a failed state after the regime change, and the content is shared by both authentic accounts and a network of bot accounts.

TGI zoomed in to analyze over 100 debunked claims on X between Aug 5 and 10 to identify key categories of foreign disinformation to fuel communal tensions, largely originating from accounts that self-identify their location in India. The charts below highlight the disaggregation of foreign disinformation based on volume of content and engagement metrics.

Bangladesh has had a history of anti-Hindu attacks during and before the Awami League government’s ouster in early August, therefore, the present disinformation campaign specifically aims at establishing that Hindus, Ahmaddiyas, and other minority religious factions are disproportionately unsafe in post-Awami League Bangladesh.

Within Bangladesh’s political landscape, Awami League is often perceived as the center-left party promoting secular values, relative to other right-wing parties. After the Awami League government felt, fear of Hindus being persecuted spread across West Bengal. Statements from Indian politicians, such as that of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Subhendu Adhikari, stoked more fear by spreading unverifiable information, for example: “More than one crore refugees from Bangladesh will enter West Bengal soon.”

Disinformation amplified by Indian right-wing mainstream media

Debunked claims about attacks on minorities, specifically Hindu communities, were also shared by right-wing mainstream media in Bangladesh that featured outdated video footage, or played them in a loop. Several Indian mainstream media, such as Republic Bangla, Zee 24 Hours and Ei Muhurte tried to present the student-led movement as a “move towards radicalization.” In a news show at Republic Bangla that has 4.85 million subscribers on YouTube, the presenter, Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh, claimed, “This is not any student protest, freedom struggle or revolution. Bangladesh has completed the first step of becoming Afghanistan.”

AI was used to create images of attacks on Hindus

Several AI-generated images were found circulating on X and Facebook showing burning temples and torched bodies. Our analysis finds one particular image, viewed 34,600 times on X, contains the caption ALL EYES ON BANGLADESH HINDUS superimposed on the graphic, while another version bearing similar text reads SAVE HINDUS were both generated using an off-the-shelf tool resembling typical characteristics of synthetic media, such as the color tone, lack of proportion of the bodies depicted, and so on.

ALL EYES ON BANGLADESHI HINDUS pic.twitter.com/x5ectEfdUn

— REAL JEW (@THEREALJEW613) August 6, 2024

The ease of generating AI-based images and content to fuel ethnic tensions make the information ecosystem even murkier in an already volatile situation, especially with the lack of readily available detection and forensics capabilities in Bangladesh.

TGI also debunked some claims of communal violence as fake, false and misleading.

Written by Guest Contributor