268 misinformation spread in Feb: Rumor Scanner

Bangladesh's fact-checking body Rumor Scanner has detected 268 misinformation spread on internet in the month of February. 

It said the highest number 127 misinformation was found to be spread on political issues, which is 47 percent of the total misinformation. 

A number of 73 misinformation were detected spread on national issues, 10 on international issues, 18 on religious issues, eight on entertainment and literature, five on education, 16 on fraud, and seven on sports, it also said on its website.

Of these incidents, the most were information-based errors, 108 as there were 64 image-based errors and 96 video-based errors. 

Of the identified misinformation, 164 were declared false, 64 were misleading, and 40 were distorted.

As a platform, Facebook has spread the most misinformation last month, with 250 cases. In addition, 44 cases were found on X, 16 on TikTok, 38 on YouTube, 21 on Instagram, and at least three cases of misinformation were found on Threads. The country's media was not left out of the list of misinformation spreaders. 

Rumor Scanner has seen misinformation being spread in multiple media outlets in the country in 10 incidents.

Since last year, the rate of spreading false information involving Bangladesh from Indian media and various social media accounts operated from India has increased. Rumor Scanner saw this continuity in February as well. 

Last month, misinformation was spread in nine incidents involving Bangladesh in Indian media. In addition, in three incidents, false information about Bangladesh was spread from Indian accounts and pages on social media. 

The issue of spreading communal misinformation has been under discussion for the past few months. Rumor Scanner identified 20 such communal misinformation in February. 

In half of these cases, evidence of misinformation was found to have originated from Indian accounts and pages on social media.

The Rumor Scanner team observed that 16 pieces of misinformation were spread last month involving the current interim government as 16 misinformation was also spread about Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government. 

Among the government's advisors, four misinformation (all against) were identified about Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, two (all against) were identified about Nahid Islam, three (all against) were identified about Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan, and one (all against) each was identified about AFM Khalid Hossain, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Dr. Asif Nazrul, and three (all against) were identified about the Chief Advisor's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam.

Rumor Scanner analysed last month's fact checks and found that the Bangladesh Awami League (16) received the most misinformation among political parties during this period. All of these misinformation pieces created a positive impression of the party. 

Nine misinformation pieces (78 percent in favor) were identified about the party's student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League, during this period. Evidence of 12 misinformation pieces (58% in favor) was found during this period involving the party's president, Sheikh Hasina.

Rumor Scanner has detected one (against) misinformation campaign involving the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) last month. 

During this period, one (against) misinformation was spread about the party's chairperson Khaleda Zia, one about acting chairman Tarique Rahman, and four (all against) misinformation campaigns were carried out about Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

In addition, 13 misinformation campaigns (against) were identified involving Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami last month. Evidence of three misinformation campaigns (all against) were found during this period involving the party's Ameer Dr. Shafiqur Rahman. 16 misinformation campaigns (87.5 percent against) were carried out during this period involving the party's student organization Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The students who led the July mass uprising recently formed a new political party called the Jatiya Nagorik Party. 

The top position, the convener, of this party is Nahid Islam, who recently stepped down from the position of advisor to the interim government. A fake news story was spread about him last month. 

In addition, a new student organization called Bangladesh Democratic Students' Union was also formed last month. A fake news story was also seen about this organization in February.

State forces were not spared from the wrath of false information either. Last month, Rumor Scanner detected seven fake news stories about the army. 

In addition, Rumor Scanner has identified five false information spread about the Bangladesh Police. Apart from this, two false information was spread involving the Bangladesh Air Force in February.

The organization 'Anti-Discrimination Student Movement', which led from the front during the fall of the government from the quota movement, was the victim of 10 false information in February. 

At the same time, 11 false information was detected about the leaders of the anti-discrimination student movement. Of these, Rumor Scanner found five false information spread involving Hasnat Abdullah, three about Sarjis Alam, and one each about Khan Talat Mahmud Rafi, Nusrat Tabassum, and Abdul Hannan Masud.

Analyzing the false information from last month, Rumor Scanner found that 14 death rumors were spread last month regarding well-known people from various fields and various incidents.

On February 5, angry students and the public protested at Dhanmondi 32 in Dhaka over the announcement to broadcast the speech of ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

At one stage, the house of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was vandalized and set on fire. In this incident, Rumor Scanner detected at least 11 false information. 

This is the highest number of false information detected in a single incident last month. There have been reports of a significant increase in robberies and snatchings in the country in recent times. Rumor Scanner has seen the dissemination of false information using old videos, incidents of different contexts and even footage of incidents from different countries in these incidents. 

Last month, 51 false information was spread involving 32 local and foreign media outlets in 47 incidents using media names, logos, titles and fake and fake photo cards. 

Daily Prothom Alo was the most frequently used name (8) in disseminating misinformation using these methods. The newspaper was followed by Channel 24 and Jamuna TV (4).