Old Video of Boycott Campaign in Bangladesh Falsely Shared as Recent Clip

The video dates back to February 2024 and did not start after the Yunus-led interim government came to power.

Aishwarya Varma
WebQoof
Published:
<div class="paragraphs"><p>The video is old and is not recent as claimed.</p></div>
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The video is old and is not recent as claimed.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

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A video which shows a man walking around a market, asking shopkeepers to boycott goods made in India, has gone viral on social media platforms.

  • Those sharing the video claim that it shows a recent video of people in Bangladesh doing so, after the formation of the new government headed by Chief Adviser Mohammed Yunus.

  • In the video, the man can be heard naming Indian brands and products like Dabur honey, Parachute oil, Ujala detergent, among others, asking the vendor not to sell them.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The claim is misleading.

  • The video dates back to February 2024, and shows a member of the Gana Adhikar Parishad party in Bangladesh requesting vendors to boycott Indian products during an 'India Out' campaign.

How did we find out the truth?: We used InVID, a video verification extension on Google Chrome, to divide the video into keyframes.

Following this with a reverse image search led us to a post carrying the same video on Facebook, shared by one Tamanna Firdouz Shikha on 22 February 2024.

The video was shared in February 2024.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We went through the posts shared by this account, which led us to a video showing the same man speaking, with a placard which reads 'Gono Adhikar Parishad' in the background.

We saw the same man in other videos.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Another video, shared with the hashtag #tarekgop, showing the same person, identified him as Tareq Rahman.

He was identified as Tarek Rahman.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search using his name, along with 'Gono Adhikar Parishad' on Google, which led us to a Facebook page named 'Tarek/Gana Adhikar Parishad'.

Here, we saw a similar video of Tarek talking to shopkeepers about not selling Indian brands and products, reading off a leaflet to offer Bangladeshi alternatives instead.

He had also shared the leaflet listing Indian products on this Facebook page.

He shared the leaflet listing Indian products and brands.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We saw posts sharing the link to his YouTube channel.

On his channel, called 'Tarek's Time', we saw that Rahman had shared the viral video on 22 February himself, titled 'Going to the shop, I am warning not to keep Indian products.'

Bangladesh's 'India Out' campaign: Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information regarding this boycott.

  • A report by Al Jazeera, published in February, mentioned that the call to boycott Indian products came "amid allegations of Indian interference in national elections."

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  • It mentioned that a campaign was launched after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secured a historic fourth term, adding that many believed India favoured Hasina's government and had a strained relationship with opposition parties.

  • The Gono Adhikar Parishad, which is aligned with the opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was "promoting the boycott movement," it read.

The campaign was promoted by the Gono Adhikar Parishad.

(Source: Al Jazeera/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An old video showing a Bangladeshi man campaigning to boycott Indian products is being falsely shared as a recent one.

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