Fake News of Candidate withdrawing from election circulated on Facebook using deepfake video
On the day of the 12th National Assembly elections, a fake video was seen to be circulating on social media, in which Abdullah Nahid Nigar, an independent candidate for the Gaibandha-1 constituency, announced that she has withdrawn from the election. However, a verification by Dismislab showed that the video was created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The video shows Nahid Nigar announcing her decision to withdraw from the election. The caption of the video reads, “Respecting the decision of the honorable Prime Minister, I withdraw from the election and support Shamim Haider Patwari. Everyone go to the center in groups and votes for Shamim Haider Patwari’s plow symbol. Everyone has worked hard for me. I am grateful to you.”
But upon scrutiny, an inconsistency has been noticed in the video between the movement of the lips and the words being heard. The fake video also bears no resemblance to Nahid Nigar’s real voice and speech. The image used to create the fake video with artificial intelligence technology was taken from the candidate’s Facebook profile.
Jatiya Party’s Shamim Haider Patwari was the last Member of Parliament for Gaibandha-1 Constituency. In 2018, he was elected Member of Parliament for this seat through by-elections. He is one of the candidates for this seat in this election as well. The ruling Awami League did not field any candidates for the Gaibandha-1 seat. Although a nomination had been made in the beginning for this seat under the boat symbol, later on it was withdrawn through an agreement with the Jatiya Party. The fake AI-generated video also called for votes to be casted for Shamim Haider Patwari under the plow symbol. A total of 10 candidates are contesting for this seat. Among the two independent candidates, one is Abdullah Nahid Nigar.
Both the Facebook pages of Naheed Nigar have issues warning about such a fake video being circulated on Facebook. Of those two pages, one has about 4,000 likes, and the other has about 6,500 likes. Both pages clarified through graphic cards and videos that the news regarding her withdrawal from the election is a rumor. The screenshot of the fake page warned about by these two pages shows only 4 likes, but the page could not be found on verification.
Apart from the fake page in the name of Nahid Nigar, the fake video with the same caption was also circulated by a page named ‘Gaibandha Gazette‘. The video was seen to have garnered comments such as “Good initiative taken”, “Good action taken”, “Good news”. Which indicates that many assumed the announcement to be true.
However, the recently published pictures on multiple pages of Nahid Nigar confirm that she is still contesting the polls. The pictures of her visiting various centers also show that she did not stand back from the election.
Several media outlets have already raised concerns about the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, in Bangladesh’s twelfth national election. In a detailed report published on December 14, citing several deepfake videos in Bangladesh, the Financial Times stated that “Policymakers around the world are worrying over how AI-generated disinformation can be harnessed to try to mislead voters and inflame divisions ahead of several big elections next year.” An article published in The Diplomat titled ‘Deepfake and Disinformation in Bangladesh‘ also talked about the use of deepfake content in elections in Bangladesh. Apart from that, a report of Foreign Affairs also stated that AI disinformation can be a threat to the democracy of any country.
