Tackling rumours, misinformation will be harder before polls: Salahuddin

BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed today (19 July) expressed concerns that dealing with misinformation, rumours and the misuse of artificial intelligence will become more difficult as the next national election approaches.

"It's now the age of videos. These are made in such a way that people easily believe them. As the election gets closer, false or deliberately misleading information and rumours will spread using artificial intelligence. It will become a real challenge to tackle them," he said while speaking at a seminar in the capital's Banani area.

The BNP leader said there is a campaign against their party, labelling it as anti-reform. "I don't know whether I should call it a rumour," he said.

Salahuddin, a BNP Standing Committee member, said the truth is that BNP is sincerely working with the Consensus Commission on reform issues as BNP was the first to raise the topic of state restructuring and presented a 32-point reform outline.

"We are the ones who are always making compromises, bringing together laws that can be implemented, and offering solutions. We are only talking about solutions," the BNP leader said.

He alleged that a section of people is twisting, damaging, and insulting the spirit of mass uprisings and spreading different kinds of propaganda in Bangladesh. "The result is that we are insulting the history of our democratic struggle. When we do this, we give space to fascism. I don't think anyone in our country wants that."

Salahuddin also criticised misleading online content, especially on YouTube. "There are a few YouTubers who create such content. In some videos, I see my photo is shown, but my voice or words are not there."

He said the YouTubers also use photos of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other party leaders to make thumbnails, but the actual content has nothing from their statements.

The BNP leader said these content creators use titles or thumbnails that do not match the actual speech. "It's like they are playing with the nation. Their subscribers belong to a certain group. They believe whatever that group says. There's a saying — 'whatever you write becomes the truth'. That's what we are seeing now," he added.

In Bangladesh's political culture, Salahuddin said, the nation was united before 5 August. "But after that, all the brothers have gone their separate ways. Now we are fighting among ourselves, while those in Delhi are sitting back and enjoying the comfort."