Misinformation trends and narratives in Bangladesh’s tumultuous 2024
2024 was an eventful year for Bangladesh; but it was also one marked by a surge in misinformation and disinformation. After an already tumultuous 2023, which saw widespread disinformation amid election campaigns and rising political tensions, the past year surpassed its predecessor by a big margin. According to Dismislab’s database, fact-checkers working on Bangladesh-related issues published 58% more fact-check reports in 2024 compared to 2023.
Dismislab publishes quarterly analyses of misinformation trends, and as the new year begins, this article presents a comprehensive overview of the year that was. It includes the trends of false or misleading information, the key events that influenced the spread of misinformation, the types of narratives that gained traction, and the figures at the center of them all.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of the misinformation fact-checked last year was political, primarily due to the national parliamentary elections at the beginning, the Anti-discrimination Student Movement and the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in the middle, and religious tension toward the end. After politics, religion was the second most prominent subject of misinformation. In the months after the formation of an interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, religiously-charged misinformation began to spread at an alarming rate. Claims of minority persecution, particularly involving Hindus and the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a former leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), dominated the narrative. A significant portion of misinformation related to international affairs spread around the Israel-Iran and Israel-Palestine conflicts.
We also analyzed the key individuals, organizations, and countries that were the subjects of the most widespread misinformation. Among individuals, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, current interim government Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, and cricket all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan topped the list. As for organizations, Sheikh Hasina’s party the Awami League, the military, police, and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were most frequently targeted. On the international front, India topped the list of countries that featured in misinformation, followed by Palestine, Iran, and the United States. These findings are based on keyword analysis of all headlines of the fact-check reports (see methodology section for details).
In 2024, as in 2023, the majority (39%) of the misinformation was spread through videos. Next to that were images (28%) and graphic cards (14%).
Bigger the event, greater the misinformation wave
It is difficult to determine the exact volume of false or misleading information that made the rounds last year. For methodological reasons, only a handful of the disinformation that spreads online can be verified. Firstly, for a content to be considered for fact-checking, it must contain verifiable information. Fact-checkers also consider its importance and how widespread it is. For all practical reasons, many contents containing disinformation are often not considered for fact-checking. According to Dismislab’s database, eight fact-checking organizations working on Bangladesh issues fact-checked over 4,500 pieces of false information in 2024. At times, several organizations reported on the same issue. By considering only one report per unique content, we determined that fact-checkers identified and verified over 3,000 distinct false or misleading pieces of information that went viral in Bangladesh in 2024. This number is significantly higher compared to the previous year.
Politics and religion were subjects of misinformation throughout the year. The first chart above shows that a third (33%) of it involved politics. It was followed by religion (13%) and sports (8%). Another chart below, which presents the monthly trend of misinformation, shows that different events or chain of events acted as “triggers” for spreading misinformation. For example, we saw a significant spike in the number of misinformation at the end of July and the beginning of August. This was mainly due to the increase in political misinformation during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement and the fall of the Hasina government. In some cases, old or irrelevant photos and videos were used to prove the intensity of the movement, while in other cases, recent photos and videos were claimed to be old to suggest that the movement had subsided. To confuse the opposition camps, fake press releases were disseminated. Various false information about foreign intervention or support also went viral. Many false claims about the number of casualties also spread fear at different stages of the 36-day student movement beginning on July 1, 2024, initially demanding reform in government job quotas but eventually turning into an anti-government movement. (For more details, read Dismislab’s analysis on this.)
Similarly, the misinformation surge observed in January last year can be attributed mainly to the elections. During that month, 48% of the total misinformation was political, as Bangladesh went to the 12th parliamentary election on January 7, 2024. To either portray the election as successful or to prove allegations of rigging, various groups spread various types of misinformation to support their narratives. During this period, at least two deepfake videos were circulated to spread false information about the withdrawal of candidacies of two contenders – both of them women.
A significant portion of religious misinformation last year claimed that attacks and persecution of minorities in Bangladesh had increased, or that Islamic extremism was on the rise. In some cases, old or irrelevant photos and videos were used to falsely claim attacks on Hindus. In other cases, scenes of attacks on the homes and businesses of Muslim individuals or Awami League party leaders and activists were presented as attacks on the Hindu community. In some instances, it was falsely claimed that the leaders of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement had given an ultimatum for Hindus to leave the country, called for genocide, or threatened to slaughter Hindus while marching with the Palestinian flag. Analyzing the fact-check reports on religious issues published from January to November, Dismislab found that after August, religious misinformation increasingly became hateful and divisive.
Disinformation related to communal tension and religious hatred had already been on the rise since August, but it took on a new dimension in November. On November 5, an anti-ISKCON Facebook post in the port city of Chittagong led to a clash, injuring 7 police officers and five members of the army. Subsequently, police arrested the man allegedly responsible for the Facebook post and 49 others reportedly involved in the clash. On November 26, Chinmoy Krishna Das, spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagaran Jote, a group that champions Hindu rights, was arrested on charges of sedition. When his bail was denied by a Chattogram court, his followers clashed with law enforcement. A lawyer named Saiful Alam, a Muslim, was killed on the court premises during the clash. It was later falsely claimed that Saiful Alam was a counsel for Chinmoy Krishna Das.
In the same month, various false information spread on social media around these events. Several fake quotes attributed to Chinmoy Krishna Das were circulated using fake photocards in the name of mainstream media houses. Because Chinmoy was previously associated with ISKCON, false information about the organization also circulated. For example, it was falsely claimed that weapons were recovered from the ISKCON temple in the eastern Bangladesh district of Sylhet, or that a supermarket and one of the leading inter-district transport companies, Shyamoli Paribahan, had funded the group. Fake press releases were also circulated claiming that a Bangladeshi news outlet labeled ISKCON as a militant organization or that one of Bangladesh’s main political parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), called for banning the group. All these saw a significant increase in fact-check reports on religious issues in December, when 29% of the fact-check reports published by fact-checking organizations related to Bangladesh were on religious topics.
Religious misinformation had seen a surge in April as well. That month, as India entered its Lok Sabha elections, false claims of religious hatred and persecution spread on social media in both India and Bangladesh. April was also the month of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, considered the biggest religious festival for Muslims. During the time, misinformation about religious miracles, religious history, and even the dates of Eid were also circulated.
In February, March, and June, which were comparatively quieter months politically and religiously, misinformation on these two topics took back seat. Instead, most of the misinformation during this period involved sports. In February, for example, 16% of the total fact-check reports we compiled were about sports, which rose to 25% in March. The main subjects of misinformation during this time were cricket and cricket stars. The Bangladesh Premier League, a domestic cricketing event, took place from the third week of January through the entire month of February. The Indian Premier League (IPL), India’s own domestic cricket tournament, began in March, adding fuel to the fire. Numerous misinformation went viral over the two months about which player was playing for which team and who said what about whom. Photos of star cricketers and false statements attributing to them were also used to promote gambling during the time. Similarly, misinformation about sports saw a spike in June when the T20 World Cup, an international cricketing event, was underway.
In August, misinformation related to natural disasters increased three to four times compared to other months following the flash floods at the end of that month in the eastern region of Bangladesh. At the time, scenes of floods from India, Pakistan, or even Mexico were circulated as being from Bangladesh. Several images (1, 2) created with artificial intelligence technology were also spread, claiming to be scenes of floods in Bangladesh.
Misinformation spotlight: individuals, organizations and countries
Dismislab analyzed the titles of fact-check reports to identify the most commonly targeted individuals and the most frequently used topics of misinformation in 2024. We found that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in the face of a popular movement, was targeted most frequently. Next to her was Dr. Yunus, who took over after Hasina’s ouster as the chief advisor of the current interim government. The portrayal of these individuals in misinformation was not always negative; sometimes they were positive, but exaggerated. Sheikh Hasina was a subject of misinformation throughout 2024, while the disinformation campaign against Dr. Yunus primarily began in August. (For more details, see this analysis.)
After them, the most common targets of misinformation were Bangladesh’s two star cricketers – Shakib Al Hasan, who joined Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party before the 2024 national election and won, and Tamim Iqbal. Each of the two has their own following among cricket fans. Various false quotes have been attributed to their names at different times, and their photos and videos have been edited and used in gambling advertisements. The rivalry between Shakib and Tamim has fueled these falsehoods significantly. However, Shakib Al Hasan’s professional, personal, and financial matters have all been subjects of misinformation.
After the August 5 political changeover, various advisors of the interim government and leaders of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement came into the spotlight. One misinformation after another hit social media around the three student leaders who took on advisory roles in the interim government – Asif Mahmud, Nahid Islam, and Mahfuj Alam. In some cases, fake quotes (1, 2, 3) attributed to them were circulated, while in other cases, attempts were made to portray them as members of Islamic militant organizations (1, 2, 3). Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah, two prominent leaders of the student movement, also became subjects of misinformation (1, 2, 3). False information circulated from a fake Facebook account opened in Sarjis’s name even made its way into mainstream media reports.
Countries featured in misinformation
Among countries, India featured most frequently in the headlines of fact-check reports published in 2024. The topics of misinformation about India were multifaceted. But the most discussed or criticized topic of the year was the propaganda spread (1, 2, 3) by various Indian media and social media users after August 5. False and exaggerated information (1, 2, 3, 4) about attacks on minorities and communal tension, as well as attempts to depict Bangladesh as a militant state, contributed to spreading tension and division.
After Sheikh Hasina took shelter in India on August 5, various false information spread about her stay (1, 2, 3, 4) in the neighbouring country. A number of claims went as far as to propagate that Indians have been employed in the Bangladesh police force (1, 2) or that a director of Bangladesh Bank is an Indian citizen. During the student movement, it was falsely claimed that the Indian army was entering Bangladesh or that Indian aircraft were stationed at Bangladesh air bases. After the fall of the Awami League government, false claims made the rounds that Indian soldiers were withdrawing from Bangladesh. All this misinformation has increased distrust on both sides of the border.
However, India hogged headlines for other reasons as well. For example, during India’s national elections, religious hate speech and misinformation crossed the border and spread in neighboring Bangladesh. The tension surrounding the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya (in India’s Uttar Pradesh state) also gave rise to false and misleading information in Bangladesh. Throughout the year, India’s name repeatedly featured in fact-check reports related to sports (1, 2, 3, 4) and floods as well. Often, photos and videos from Bangladesh were falsely claimed (1, 2, 3) to be from India, or vice versa (1, 2, 3). In August, during the floods in eastern Bangladesh, several fake photos and videos spread, falsely asserting that they were images of Indian dams (1, 2, 3), which many Bangladeshis blame for causing the floods.
After India, Iran and Palestine also featured frequently in misinformation, mostly related to Israel-Iran or Israel-Palestine conflicts. Typically, 2-3% of the monthly fact-checks are on international affairs. It more than doubled to 8% in April, a month that saw bombing and counter-bombing between Israel and Iran. Similarly in October, the exchange of missile attacks between the two countries further fueled misinformation about international affairs. During this time, the key narratives involved the damage caused by Iran’s attacks on Israel and fabricated images of Iranian attacks created with AI. Critics of Dr. Yunus even falsely claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked him, in efforts to portray him as an ally of Israel. Given the religious sentiments involved, the people of Bangladesh have been traditionally sympathetic towards countries like Palestine and Iran in their conflicts with Israel.
Throughout the year, the United States’ name appeared in various conspiracy theories and discussions about its role in Bangladesh politics. In the first half of 2024, much of the misinformation involving the U.S. focused on the legitimacy of Bangladesh’s 12th parliamentary election and the U.S. visa restrictions on certain Bangladeshi citizens. Following Sheikh Hasina’s fourth straight win in the January 7 parliamentary election, opposition groups falsely alleged that the United States had rejected the results, and that various individuals and institutions in Bangladesh faced visa restrictions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) due to the perceived unfairness of the election. After August 5, the discussion about the U.S. centred around the strategic St. Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal. During this period, false claims surfaced that Bangladesh had handed over St. Martin’s Island to the US, or that U.S. soldiers had taken control of this strategically important island. The spread of these conspiracy theories can be traced back to comments made by Sheikh Hasina and leaders of her Awami League party, along with their allied political parties, suggesting that handing over the small coral island to the US would solidify their power. The misinformation about the U.S. taking control of St. Martin’s Island was likely used to suggest that the interim government came to power by handing over the island to the U.S.
Various conspiracy theories were circulated about Pakistan as well. After the August political changeover, as diplomatic and commercial relations between Bangladesh’s interim government and Pakistan strengthened, a cargo ship from Pakistan arrived at a Bangladeshi port for the first time since 1971, when Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan. After the ship’s arrival, rumors began to spread that the vessel was carrying weapons or that two officials had been transferred for attempting to search it. Another claim that gained traction suggested that the Pakistani army had arrived in Bangladesh to provide training. Indian mainstream media also spread false claims that the Pakistani army was patrolling in Bangladesh.
Organizations that topped the list
The Awami League and its affiliated bodies topped the list of institutions or organizations whose names appeared in misinformation throughout 2024. A significant share of this misinformation circulated during the July-August movement. During this period, false information was spread claiming that leaders and activists of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, were killed (1, 2, 3, 4) in attacks by the protesters. Additionally, false information emerged, claiming that the leaders and activists of the Chhatra League or Jubo League (the youth wing of the Awami League) who attacked protesters with firearms were actually members of Chhatra Shibir (1, 2, 3), the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party.
After the August 5 changeover, old photos and videos of rallies and processions by the Awami League and its affiliated organizations were circulated (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) as recent, likely to boost the morale of Awami League supporters. During the floods in eastern Bangladesh in August, photos and videos of other organizations helping flood victims were circulated as the relief distribution efforts of the Awami League or its student wing, Chhatra League. After Chhatra League was banned in October for its past violent activities, several pieces of misinformation emerged, including claims that sweets were distributed after the ban, or that the High Court had overturned the ban decision. The first one likely came from the anti-Chhatra League group, while the last one from the Chhatra League or their sympathizers. Additionally, fake press releases were circulated in the name of Chhatra League, advising its leaders and supporters on how they should respond to the ban.
After the Awami League, the Bangladesh army and police force appeared most frequently in misinformation. Before and after the parliamentary elections in January 2024, some misinformation claimed that the election would be held under the army’s supervision or that the army had arrested the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Other misinformation claimed that the US had imposed sanctions on the army. However, the armed forces came into a greater spotlight after the fall of the Awami League government. At the time, the armed forces were deployed across the country to maintain law and order. Shortly afterwards, misinformation started spreading that the army had set the prices of some essential goods. On August 10, misinformation also spread about a clash between the army and Awami League party supporters in Gopalganj, Sheikh Hasina’s ancestral hometown. Some social media posts claimed that over 60 people were killed in the army’s attack, while others propagated that soldiers were celebrating after beating Awami League leaders and supporters.
In October, rumors spread claiming conflicts between the army and Chief Advisor Dr. Yunus. One such misinformation claimed that soldiers had surrounded the chief advisor’s official residence in Dhaka or that the chief advisor had left the country in the wake of a dispute with the army chief. Misinformation about clashes between the army and workers of various organizations and institutions (1, 2, 3) were also circulated. False claims that an advisor to the interim government resigned under pressure from the army or that the army had arrested (1, 2) various individuals also did the rounds.
A significant share of misinformation about the Bangladesh police force was spread during the July-August movement and after the fall of the Awami League government. During these two months, misinformation spread about protesters being killed in police attacks (1, 2), as well as false information about police officers being killed (1, 2). A list published by police headquarters reported that 44 police officers had died during the anti-discrimination student movement. However, it was falsely claimed that the number of deaths exceeded 1,000 (1, 2). It was also falsely claimed that Sheikh Hasina filed a case against Yunus, accusing him of killing 500 police officers.
Educational institutions, especially Dhaka University, Bangladesh’s top public university, were a notable subject of misinformation. In this case too, a significant share of the misinformation was circulated during the student movement. Old or unrelated photos and videos of rallies and protests were circulated as recent scenes (1, 2, 3) from Dhaka University. In September, Dhaka University also came into the spotlight over Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami . Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government banned Jamaat-e-Islami on August 1, just four days before her government fell. After the political changeover, the interim government overturned this decision on August 28. Following this decision, Chhatra Shibir activists were seen in large groups on Dhaka University campus after many years. At the time, fake quotes were circulated attributing to the president or general secretary of the Dhaka University unit of Chhatra Shibir.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was also a key target of misinformation throughout the year. In the months leading up to the January 7 national elections, several top BNP leaders were arrested. Subsequently, false information spread claiming that they were released on bail immediately after the election (1, 2, 3). After Sheikh Hasina’s government fell, most of the misinformation about the BNP involved various fake press releases using the party’s name. These fake press releases claimed the expulsion (1, 2) or show-cause notices of certain leaders and activists of the party, the dissolution (1, 2, 3, 4) of certain committees, or the formation (1, 2) of new committees. These were mainly spread by their political opponents, supporters of the then-ruling Awami League, likely to confuse BNP’s grassroots.
Methodology
For the analyses of the 2024 misinformation trends and narratives, we considered reports published on eight fact-checking websites related to Bangladesh. The sites are: Rumor Scanner, BoomBD, NewsChecker, Fact Crescendo, Fact Watch, AFP Bangladesh, Ajker Patrika, and Dismislab itself. The reports were categorized into 17 topics based on their content: politics, sports, health, disasters, religion, nature and environment, entertainment, fraud, science and technology, law and order, education, economy and development, defense, public policy, international affairs, migration, and others.
A total of 4,699 fact-check reports were published across the eight websites in 2024. However, multiple sites published fact-check reports on the same misinformation. To determine the scale of unique misinformation by topic, only one report was considered unique if multiple websites published fact-check reports on the same misinformation. This way, we identified 3,167 unique fact-check reports.
To identify the individuals, organizations or countries that featured in most disinformation, we analyzed the keywords in the published story titles, to see which words were most frequently used.
