Communal Claims & AI Misuse: How Indian 'Bad Actors' Misled on Bangladesh Crisis

Just like the anti-quota protests in Bangladesh, misinformation came in waves.

WebQoof: Let us see how misinformation has been going around about Bangladesh. 

(Source: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

As the political storm caught up in Bangladesh, some Indian X (formerly Twitter) handles unsurprisingly sprang into action to share mis/disinformation about the situation in the neighbouring country. These bad actors, several of whom have been called out for spreading "fake news" in the past, tried to leverage the communication gap and internet shutdowns to spread disinformation.

Just like the protests, misinformation also came in waves – the first wave came during the anti-quota protests by students; the second came when Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina was ousted from the country.

Misinformation originating in India about events in Bangladesh is not a new phenomenon.

We saw a slew of misleading claims about the violence that the country saw during the Durga Puja celebrations in 2021. However, the amount of misinformation this time around was unprecedented, with The Quint's WebQoof Team publishing over 30 fact-check stories in less than a month.

The larger themes of mis/disinformation included false claims about attacks on the Hindu and Buddhist minority community, Indian forces entering Bangladesh to maintain peace, and misleading claims about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), among others.

In this story, we will analyse the top themes and narratives spread by bad actors around Bangladesh. 

Misinformation During Anti-Quota protests

When the students' movement in Bangladesh was underway in July, a video depicting a crowd holding a banner while someone chants anti-India slogans was circulated.

Users alleged that the student demonstrators chanted 'anti-India' slogans while participating in the recent movement to eliminate the quota system.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

Although the video is recent, it is not related to the quota protests. The protesters belong to a group called Gana Odhikar Parishad. They were objecting to a railway treaty signed recently by India and Bangladesh.

Communal Misinformation

As stated earlier, false communal claims about Bangladesh are not new in India, we saw a steady rise in the last two weeks. 

• A video showed two women crying while being tied up to a brick pillar by other women, with users sharing it to suggest that it depicts Hindus in Bangladesh. It was posted with a message urging individuals to protect Hindus in Bangladesh.

• X user SaffronSunanda, who has shared several pieces of disinformation during the Bangladesh crisis, shared the video on her account. This user has been at the forefront of spreading misinformation about the present situation in Bangladesh. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

We fact-checked this video and found that the claim was false. It shows student protesters at the Begum Badrunnessa Government Girls' College, tying up members of the Chhatra League.

• The video showed quota reform demonstrators restraining the college's Chhatra League members, who were accused of assaulting and harassing regular students. The event occurred on 17 July, as stated by Dhaka Post, a Bangladeshi newspaper, almost three weeks before the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Another post showed a video with four individuals with ropes around their necks and is being used to allege a recent murder of a Hindu family in Bangladesh.

• Users claimed that a complete Hindu family was eradicated by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh simply because of their religion. A hashtag '#SaveBangladeshiHindus' was shared along with the claim. 

• This claim was shared by X user Salwan Momika, who has also shared several misleading posts about Bangladesh.

Here is an example of the claim. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

However, we found that this claim was also false. The video has been circulating before Bangladeshi PM Hasina's resignation on 30 July. The video shows four members of a Muslim family discovered hanging in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh.

A video showing a building on fire also went viral with the claim that a Hindu temple was burnt down in Bangladesh. This was shared by right-wing propaganda outlet Sudarshan News on their X account. 

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This claim was also false. The structure in the video was a restaurant named Raj Prasad Restaurant in Sathkira. 

Several such claims have been floating on social media since the political crisis in Bangladesh began. These come at a time when the Hindu community in Bangladesh have been facing attacks in the country.

In Dhanmondi, Dhaka, the residence of band Joler Gaan's lead singer Rahul Ananda was engulfed in flames. The family successfully escaped.

An enraged crowd looted the Dhanuka Manasa Bari temple in Shariatpur. They destroyed the Radha-Krishna idols and demolished the temple, reported the Daily Star. 

Claims around Security Forces

With several social media asking Indian PM Narendra Modi to ‘help’ the Hindus in Bangladesh, there is a level of misinformation around security forces of Bangladesh and India floating on the internet.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

A video of a soldier speaking in Bangla circulated on social media. Together with him, another individual's voice is also audible. Those who posted the video said the Bangladesh Army sent soldiers to safeguard the Hindu community in the country. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

But, this too was false.

• The exact quote was translated into English and at no point did the army personnel mention being sent to protect Hindu minorities. The military personnel discussed a gun mishap, while the individual recording inquired about the number of Indian army/police personnel present.

• A Bangladeshi journalist confirmed to The Quint that no army troop had been deployed for a particular community. 

On Indian Army/Police: Social media users have also shared false claims about the Indian army intervening in Bangladesh amid the present situation. 

• Visuals including an image and video of army vehicles are being shared, alleging that the Indian Army came to assist former PM Hasina in quashing the protests. 

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

We traced the video of the truck back to 2022, which means it came before the current situation.

• The photo of the lake featuring military vehicles was taken at Tejgaon Airport (Old Airport), Agargaon, Dhaka.

A video claimed that it showed Indian police officers departing Bangladesh. Those sharing criticised the police force was entering the country. The claim called them “hired police.” 

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

The video features the Airport Armed Police Battalion (AAPB) of Bangladesh instead of Indian police officers as stated in the viral post.

Claims Around Infiltration the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Suvendu Adhikari made a statement in the press about inhabiting Hindus from Bangladesh in West Bengal. However, he referred their arrangement to the CAA, in a misleading manner. 

• He stated that approximately one crore Hindus might migrate to India due to the unrest.

• But is this true? No, people coming to India from Bangladesh because of the current conflict are not eligible to seek Indian citizenship under the CAA, regardless of their religious affiliation.

The act defines a deadline, declaring that it will only be valid for individuals of religious minorities from neighbouring countries who "arrived in India on or before 31.12.2014."

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

Incidentally, a video showing several people standing on either side of a barbed wire fence was shared to claim that it depicted the ‘current’ scenes from the India-Bangladesh border in Assam.

• Users demanded that the Indian government promptly offer refuge and protection to the Hindu victims in Bangladesh and linked it to the CAA. 

An archive of the claim can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

However, the video is not recent.

• The video is from 2018 and shows the India-Bangladesh Milan Mela, a yearly gathering where individuals from both nations can interact and swap gifts with individuals from opposite sides.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

AI is prominently being used to spread misinformation and mislead people on social media platforms. We saw a similar trend when fake news about the Israel-Palestine war was at a high. You can read that story here.

• An image of the Bangladesh flag hoisted in the air, along with huge crowd on the streets was being shared as real and recent visuals from the country.

Here is an example of the claim. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

However, this image is created using AI and is not real. We ran the image on AI-detection websites such as Hive Moderation and HuggingFace and found the same. 

Here are the results presented by Hive Moderation.

Here are the results presented by Hugging Face. 

While most sources of misinformation were the usual suspects, an account listed under the news/media category, @visegrad24 which operates from Poland also shared false claims and re-shared posts by Indian users.

According to a report published by the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, this X account was classified as a “new elite”, as this small group of users were responsible for a significant amount of the content which exercised disproportionate power and influence in the discourse on X around the Israel-Hamas war.

As Bangladesh begins a new journey, the spread of mis/disinformation continues to spread on social media with several users aiming to take advantage and mislead people.

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