Hate and Calls for Violence Spread Through the TMD Hashtag

Some images and language in this report may be disturbing to sensitive readers.

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In Bangladesh, the TMD hashtag has become a tool for spreading communal hatred on social media. Recently, especially on Facebook, many users have used this tag to post hateful content. Between October 22 and 28, 2025, Dismislab identified at least 39 posts that directly incited violence and hatred against a specific religious community.

These 39 posts were explicitly hateful. Dismislab also found about 178 additional posts that spread communal hatred using the TMD hashtag with coded or ambiguous language. All of these posts appeared within that one-week period in October.

Many of the posts Dismislab analyzed violate Meta’s community standards. Spreading religious hatred is also a crime under Bangladesh’s Cyber Safety Ordinance, 2025. By that measure, at least 39 posts breach both national law and platform policy. As of this report’s writing, some posts and one Facebook group had been removed, but most remained active. The earliest posts using the TMD hashtag on Facebook in Bangladesh appeared on November 28, 2024. On that day, a user posted, “Total ملعون death #TMD.” Translated, it means “Total Malaun Death.” The phrase was used literally in that sense at the time.

ملعون, or Malaun, is originally an Arabic word meaning “cursed.” In the context of Bangladesh and South Asia, however, it has long been used as a derogatory slur against members of the Hindu community.

Over the following months, the term appeared in other forms, such as “Total Misti Distribution,” Regardless of form, the hashtag was most often used in posts expressing hatred toward Hinduism on several Facebook pages and groups.

This pattern of hateful use of TMD did not originate in Bangladesh, however. Similar trends, such as “Total Muslim Death” and “Total Mollah Death,” have been observed in Western online spaces as well as in India. During Israel’s attacks on Gaza, hashtags like TMD (Total Muslim Death) and TPD (Total Palestinian Death) were used to spread anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hatred.

The hateful language in the 39 posts

On the morning of October 25, a Facebook profile named “Bhittimulok Meme Posting” (ভিত্তিমূলক মিম পোস্টিং) shared a short video reel. The video showed one image after another of men with orange beards, with a song playing in the background. The lyrics said: “Banglar Mollah, falao malur kolla” (“Mollahs of Bengal, cut off the heads of Malus”). The orange-bearded men were referred to as “Banglar Mollah,” and the song, images, or captions called for beheading “Malus” (a short form of Malaun).

The same lyrics appeared as captions in several other posts. Dismislab’s analysis found this was the most common form of explicit violent incitement. Eight of the 39 posts used the exact same language, directly calling for the killing of “Malus.”

Four users (1, 2, 3, 4) directly used TMD to mean “Total Malaun Death.” One of them posted “Noakhali October 10, 1946” and explained the meaning of TMD in the comments. Another wrote “Total Malaun” followed by a symbol representing death.

Seven posts referred to Sanatan (Hindu) followers and called for them to be “TMD’d” wherever they were found. Some called for a “Malaun-free country.”

One user explicitly wrote, “Throw stones and kill the Malus, that’s their punishment.” Another shared an audio clip saying, “If Muslims are killed in India, we’ll kill Hindus here. We won’t let a single one live,” using the #TMD tag. Others called for a Hindu-free country or used obscene insults with the word “Malaun.”

Another user shared a news photocard and wrote, “Those who say ISKCON bad Hindus and good ordinary Hindus are all the same pigs. They must all be treated the same way. No option but to do TMD.”

Hateful expression refers to any statement that attacks, insults (such as calling someone Malaun), threatens, incites violence, or promotes exclusion, such as calling for someone to be expelled from the country,on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, or national identity.

Hatred for Hatred

Starting on October 24, a new trend began on Facebook where users posted photos of themselves with orange-red beards using the #TMD. Supporters of TMD began identifying themselves proudly as “Banglar Mollah” or “Kanglu.”

Within just three days (October 24–26), at least 88 public posts showed support for this new identity. Most of them joined the trend by sharing AI-generated photos featuring dyed orange beards and hair. The earliest post, found on the morning of October 24, was captioned, “Banglar Mullah, falao malur kolla.”

The “Kanglu” and “Mollah” identities in the TMD trend are rooted in long-standing anti-Bangladesh meme culture on Indian social media. Searches using “Kanglu” or “Mollah” on platforms such as Facebook (1, 2, 3), Instagram (1, 2), Reddit (1, 2), and X (formerly Twitter) (1, 2, 3) yielded numerous memes depicting Bangladeshi men with red beards, lungis, and caps, often portrayed as dirty, poor, and religiously backward.

Recently, this portrayal has resurfaced, especially through AI-generated content. Numerous AI-generated videos mock Bangladeshi men with red-orange beards wrapped in Bangladeshi flags. One viral video on Facebook and X showed an elderly, orange-bearded man crying after learning from a DNA test that he had “no Turkish blood.”

By adopting these identities themselves, TMD promoters presented a counterreaction. One wrote, “Banglar Mollah ready for T M D.” Another posted, “Mass mollafying is important for #TMD.” Another said, “Yes, I am Kanglu Mollah.”

The TMD acronym is not limited to anti-Hindu hatred in Bangladesh; it is also being used for Islamophobic propaganda. A Facebook page named “Total Mollah Death – TMD” was found, claiming to be operated from India. Most of its posts were anti-Islamic, and some contained direct calls for genocide.

One post read, “Only the indiscriminate genocide of Mollahs can bring peace and order to the world.” The page was previously called “Ex Hindu Atheist” before being renamed in August. Similarly, on Twitter, TMD has been used in several cases (1, 2) to mean “Total Mollah Death.”

Posts linked to the TMD trend in Bangladesh also referenced the 1946 Noakhali riots. On October 24, a photo circulated showing a boy standing near Motijheel Shapla Chattar with his face covered by a flag bearing Arabic writing. Two posters appeared in the image. One read, “It’s time to ask our grandfathers what they did in Noakhali — and get ready.” The other said, “Do TMD (Total Misti Distribution) to maintain communal harmony.” The comments below were even more suggestive. Some users wrote, “Catch each Hindu one by one,” while others shared bloody images of slaughtered animals.

Another post showed a man with an orange beard and green cap grabbing another man with a tilak mark on his forehead by the throat. The meme’s caption read, “Noakhali 1946 #TMD.” The post received about 2,000 reactions and 1,700 comments. Hate-filled comments appeared from several Indian accounts as well. One user wrote, “The Bihar riots were worse than Noakhali — you seem to have forgotten that.”

The Noakhali riots resurfaced in public discussion after the release of the Hindi film The Bengal Files in September 2025. The film, set against the communal riots in Kolkata and Noakhali in 1946, sparked controversy soon after its release. Critics alleged that it could provoke communal tension under the guise of historical storytelling. The West Bengal government eventually banned the film’s screening.

How #TMD Returned

TMD propaganda aimed at spreading communal hatred in Bangladesh first appeared last year. In November 2024, a lawyer named Saiful Islam was killed during clashes in Chattogram following the arrest and denial of bail of Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — a dismissed member of ISKCON and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jote. Following the incident, some demanded that ISKCON be banned, alleging its involvement in the murder.

Two days later, several users began using TMD to mean “Total Malaun Death.” The following month, a group called “Total Misti Distribution” was created, and more users began spreading hateful propaganda.

At the end of last month, TMD-related propaganda began circulating again. Three incidents appear to have triggered it: protests surrounding the rape allegations against BUET student Sreeshanto Roy on October 21, the alleged rape of a madrasa student in Gazipur, and the reported abduction of khatib and imam Md. Muhebbullah Miaji from Tongi, Gazipur.

Following the BUET incident, one profile posted on Facebook, “A Hindu pig from BUET raped a Muslim girl by force… Malauns think Muslim girls are their sex slaves. I said this before, gave proof, and now you’ve seen it again.” The post included the #TMD hashtag.

The next day, October 22, one TMD-tagged post after another began to appear on Facebook. Messages like “Throw stones and kill the Malus, that’s their punishment. #TMD should happen in every area,” “Kafir can’t be friends. Banglar Mollah falao Ma-lu-r k*lla #TMD,” and “If you do Total Misti Distribution like in ’46, the Malauns will flee… #TMD” spread rapidly.

On October 24, after Friday prayers, rallies took place in Dhaka and several districts demanding a ban on ISKCON. The events were organized by a group called Intifada Bangladesh. Protesters alleged that ISKCON was involved in multiple incidents, including the Gazipur rape case and the imam’s abduction. They called for a national policy against Islamophobia, protection for Muslim women, and punishment for those who insult Islam. Afterward, posts combining the #ISKCONban and #TMD hashtags became more frequent, and the hateful language grew more severe.

Coded Language in the Propaganda

A major feature of TMD propaganda is the use of coded language. One common tactic is word substitution, such as using “Balu kotal” instead of “Malu kotal” (meaning “killing Malus”) or reshaping the acronym #TMD into multiple forms. Examples include “Total Misti Distribution,” “Tobaroker Mishti Distribution,” “Tawhid, Manner, Deen,” “Total Murgi Death,” and “Total Mollah Drip.”

On December 3, 2024, a user named Sifat Hasan created a Facebook group called “Total Misti Distribution TMD.” The group quickly became a hub for memes and satirical posts. Most of its content was anti-India or anti-Hindutva, and at times, incited or glorified violence. The group is no longer active.

Continuing this pattern, several meme pages have recently promoted the TMD trend through multiple posts that spread religious hatred in satirical formats. Pages such as মোল্লা with his মৌলবাদী memes,” “Islamist MEME League,” “Dawah Meme TMD,” “জাল মিমস,” “MuslimBongo–মুসলিমবঙ্গ,” and “MuslimBongo 2.0” regularly posted TMD-related content. Among them, the page “মোল্লা with his মৌলবাদী memes” has the highest following, with about 341,000 followers.

Some posts carried captions like “Never search the Noakhali Riots,” encouraging users to look up the history of ethnic massacres. Visual cues were also used to reinforce the coded language. One post, for instance, used an image of the Rajshahi railway station to reference the 1962 Rajshahi riots.

During Israel’s attacks on Gaza, hashtags like TMD and TPD were used to spread anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hatred. The use of acronyms and coded language to incite hatred toward specific ethnic or religious groups online is not new. Similar language emerged on forums such as 4chan in the late 2010s, where abbreviations like TND (Total N** Death) or TZD (Total Jew Death) were used. To evade moderation, these were later replaced with seemingly harmless phrases such as “Totally Nice Day.”

Violation of Policies

Among the 39 explicitly hateful posts documented by Dismislab, most directly used the phrase “Total Malaun Death” or called for violence against the Hindu community. Some posts referenced the historical Noakhali riots to encourage renewed violence and mass killings.

To make the calls for violence more vivid, many posts included visual depictions of weapons or instructions on how they should be used. Some used audio clips with songs explicitly calling for murder.

In certain cases, users shared photos of weapons and blood alongside the TMD tag. One post included an image of an armed man with the caption, “I, Ajmal Kasab, promise that I won’t send 166 Malawun to their designated place for the sake of #TMD.” Another post featured a video captioned “#TMD training of Dawlah (IS) Munasir brothers,” showing several people attempting to make explosives.

Under Meta’s Hateful Conduct policy, content that attacks or insults people based on protected characteristics such as religion, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or serious illness is prohibited. All posts expressing hatred toward followers of Sanatan religion violate this policy.

Similarly, under Meta’s Violence and Incitement policy, no content may include threats of violence, encourage harm, or call for attacks on others. This includes not only direct threats but also coded or veiled language that implies harm. However, as of October 31, most of these posts remained active and had not been removed from Facebook.

According to the Bangladesh Cyber Safety Ordinance 2025, If any person intentionally, knowingly, or under a false identity unlawfully enters into his own or another’s ID and publishes, propagates, or causes to be published or propagated in cyberspace anything that is religiously or communally hateful or that incites ethnic hatred, and which incites violence, causes alarm, or provides instructions for disorder or criminal activities, then such an act shall constitute an offence. The punishment may include imprisonment for up to two years, a fine of up to BDT 1 million, or both.

Methodology

While verifying the recent TMD trend, the first relevant post was found on October 21. Between October 22 and 28, a search for posts containing “TMD” in English yielded a total of 1,360 posts on Facebook. Of these, 294 were identified as related to TMD in the Bangladeshi context. All content was archived on November 30. For analysis, the 294 posts were categorized, with 217 identified as active promotion of TMD and 39 marked as explicit hate content for further qualitative analysis. Each post was reviewed against Meta’s Violence and Incitement policy and divided into two main categories: coded or implicit attacks, and explicit threats. Engagements – including total likes, comments, and shares – were recorded. Researchers also reviewed the public profiles of users posting the content to understand the context, intent, and political leanings. Additionally, between October 24 and 27, at least 88 posts supporting the “colored beard” trend were identified.