Staged footage claims bodies floating in Bangladesh's floodwaters
Recently, several video clips depicting bodies floating in water have been circulated on social media as footage from the recent floods in southern Bangladesh. These include clips of a woman’s body wearing a black-and-white dress, another in a red dress, a body being pulled onto a boat from the water, and a man in a panjabi floating in the water. Some clips have been shared individually, while others have been edited and combined to create new videos. Users commented and shared these videos under the impression that the bodies were floating in the floodwaters of Feni’s recent flooding. However, Dismislab’s verification revealed that the viral video clips are not real incidents but rather staged scenes.
On August 27, a Facebook page named “Srabon & Shakila” shared a 27-second video. The video was created by editing four different clips together with the song “Amar Dehokhan” by the Bangladeshi music band Odd Signature. The video was spread with the caption, “How many mothers lost their children in this flood… 💔😥,” and has been viewed nearly 50,000 times on Facebook so far, with around 221 shares. Similar claims have also been shared in several other posts (1, 2, 3) on Facebook. Additionally, the video has been circulated with the direct claim, “How many mothers lost their children in this flood in Feni. #Feni_Flood,” from a Facebook page named “Feni Government College” (1, 2).
The first clip used in the 27-second video, which shows a floating body dressed in black and white, had previously been shared separately on social media under a different claim. It was circulated on multiple handles on X (formerly Twitter) on August 11 and August 13 with the claim that the body was of a Hindu woman who had been raped and then dumped in the river near Pagla Bazar in Fatulla Thana, Narayanganj. Most of the related Facebook videos were posted between August 11 and 13. However, since no news report of such an incident in Narayanganj could be found, the authenticity of the video could not be verified. The earliest post found through a reverse image search was on X, dated August 11. However, the severe flooding in Feni district occurred after August 20, meaning that this video had been circulating on social media for at least a week before the floods in Feni, indicating no connection between the video and the flooding in Feni.
Additionally, the 6-second clip of the woman in the red dress had also been shared earlier. It has been repeatedly shared on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, recently, under claims related to the Feni flood. The video was even shared on YouTube with the direct caption, “Alas, the floodwaters took the life of a girl.” The video was also shared around the same time from a Facebook account opened in the name of Sarzis Alam, coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
The video gained significant attention, prompting the daily newspaper “Ajker Patrika” to publish a fact-check report on it. Through reverse image search, the fact-check team of Ajker Patrika discovered the video and several others featuring the same person in the same outfit on a Chinese YouTube channel named “Rescue House 25.0.” The channel had posted the video as an “educational staged video” on August 22.
The third clip, where a corpse is being pulled onto a boat, was found on YouTube through reverse image search. The complete video was posted on August 25 with the caption “Bangladesh flood situation #shortvideo #funnyvideo…” The very end of the video reveals that the person floating like a corpse is actually alive. A laughing audio is used in the final part. The misleading first part of the video has been circulated as if it shows bodies floating in the Feni floodwaters.
The final clip, showing a man in traditional attire floating in the water, was also circulated on YouTube under the claim, “Another body recovered | Feni💔😭 #Feni #feni.” A Facebook post with the same video, claiming “How many mothers lost their children in this flood…” has been viewed over 200,000 times. Through reverse image search, Dismislab found a longer version of the video on TikTok and YouTube. On August 7, the video was posted on TikTok with the caption, “Can’t decide whether to laugh or cry #funnyvideo.” While the first part of the video may suggest that the person in traditional attire is dead, the final part shows that he is alive. The video ends with a laughter clip, making it clear that an old video was misleadingly edited to depict bodies floating in the Feni floodwaters.
Recently, severe floods have submerged various districts in the eastern and southern parts of Bangladesh. According to Disaster Management and Relief Advisor Faruq E Azam, a total of 74 upazilas and 541 unions across the country have been affected by the floods. Nearly 1.2 million families in 11 districts have been stranded due to the sudden flooding. So far, 27 deaths have been reported in the flood-affected districts. However, none of the misleadingly circulated clips are related to these incidents. It is not the first time that old and irrelevant videos have been circulated on social media as footage from the current floods. Dismislab has published several fact-check reports (1, 2) on similar misleading content.
