Highlights:

• 83.7% rumors circulated in last three months were elections related
• 1,915 rumors circulated throughout 2023
• 1,400 rumors circulated throughout 2022 

As Bangladesh is now heading for crucial general elections scheduled for January 7, political parties have resorted to a malicious campaign of spreading rumors on cyberspace to misguide public opinion.

Tvista have found hundreds of social media account that spread deliberate propaganda against their political rival. The propaganda posts enjoy thousands of views, share and needless to say that such misinformation leave serious effects on user that they might believe these claims. 

Such statements can ultimately create confusion in the society when the citizens of Bangladesh are prone to the propaganda and many people here died of conflicts resulting from the clashes fueled by disinformation.

Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking platform based on Facebook and YouTube, revealed that at least 56 rumors about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been spread online, mainly on YouTube, in three months. 

The second highest number of rumors was against different state agencies. 

Of them, there were 24 rumors about the police, 18 on Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, 17 on diplomatic and different local and international organizations. 

Of the total number of political rumors in the last three months of 2023, a staggering 83.7% were related to the general election.

Rumor Scanner detected seven rumors on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, six on BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, four each on Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader and Gono Odhikar Parishad factional chief Nurul Haque Nur and three on BNP leaders Rumeen Farhana and Ishraque Hossain apiece over the period.

Additionally, three more rumors were found against as many independent candidates of the election. 

The highest (215) rumors were detected in December whereas 175 in November and 210 in October. Those are among 1,915 rumors circulated throughout last year. The annual figure in 2022 stood at 1,400. 

Meta’s Policy to Counter Polls-Time Rumor 

Meta (formerly known as Facebook Inc) on November 28 claimed tight monitoring of rumors as more than two billion people heading to the polls in elections across some of the world’s biggest democracies, including the US, Bangladesh. 

“Over many years, Meta has developed a comprehensive approach for elections on our platforms. With so many important elections approaching, we are setting out how the policies and safeguards we have established over time will apply in 2024,” it said.

Meta went on to say that it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security, with more than $20 billion invested in teams and technology in this area since 2016.

“While much of our approach has remained consistent for some time, we’re continually adapting to ensure we are on top of new challenges, including the use of AI. We’ve also built the largest independent fact-checking network of any platform, with nearly 100 partners around the world to review and rate viral misinformation in more than 60 languages,” it added. 

Government Initiative to Lessen Disinformation

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission says it in separate meetings with the Facebook, TikTok and Google authorities in August and September instructed them to take necessary measures on the January 7 polls. 

TikTok has announced the creation of a ‘Bangladesh Election Centre’ to deliver accurate election information for Bangladeshis only.

TikTok says the community guidelines provide specific policies to control the spread of false information, violence, and hate speech directly during elections. Eligibility of candidates, voter registrations, counting of ballots and results of elections, and many other issues will come under the policy. The platform will quickly remove misleading election-related information based on all norms.

BTRC Commissioner Dr Mushfiq Mannan Chowdhury said, “There have been earlier instances of anarchy spreading through false information around elections. People use social media to spread them. This disturbs the peace in the country. But this time, Facebook and Google are on alert. We have been spoken to. They will quickly remove any content that contains rumors or violence.”

According to BTRC, currently, the number of internet users in the country is around 13 crore. More than 50 million people use Facebook.

Fact-checking platform Rumor Scanner’s head of operations, Sajjad Hossain Chowdhury, told media that the number of election-centric rumors have increased gradually since October. 

“The rumors were circulated through fake photocards, and videos with misleading headlines and thumbnails on Facebook and YouTube,” he said. 

The trend, he said, intensified to a large extent in December.