Stern actions needed to stop provocative fake videos

The fallen Awami League affiliated online groups are spreading misleading and fake videos to provoke people and to create anarchies since the party was ousted from power on 5 August last year.

The miscreants on different occasions spread fake videos through social media to provoke their targeted people.

In most cases, the miscreants use videos which are created from any foreign countries. In recent times, they used video footage taken from India which showed influential people torturing any minor women or girl.

Using those videos, the criminals try to prove that Bangladeshi majority group people are torturing religious minorities’ women or girls.

Several times, Fact-checking initiative BanglaFact, run by the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB), has uncovered such things.

As a latest incident, BanglaFact unearthed a deceptive social media campaign where a protest video from Indonesia was circulated as if it depicted ongoing unrest in hill district Khagrachhari.

According to the BanglaFact investigation team, the misleading clip spread widely across social platforms, particularly on Facebook. The circulated posts alleged that gunfire was taking place in Khagrachhari at night.

This wave of misinformation emerged at a time when Section 144 was in force in Khagrachhari due to a worsening law and order situation, the team noted.

Investigators also pointed out that the footage was shared by multiple Facebook pages and accounts linked with the Awami League leaders and activists.

After verification, BanglaFact confirmed that the video had no connection to Khagrachhari, but instead originated from anti-government demonstrations in Indonesia during late August. These protests broke out in response to a sharp rise in commodity prices.

To trace the video’s origin, the fact-checkers used reverse image search on still frames.

This led them to the same footage uploaded on August 31 by a Facebook user named Aung Zaw Myint, who clearly identified the incident as Indonesian. Another account, Eric Sua, also shared the clip labeling it as Indonesia.

A critical clue was a vehicle in the footage marked with the word “BRIMOB.” Further checking revealed that BRIMOB refers to the Mobile Brigade Corps, a special paramilitary wing of the Indonesian police.

Based on these findings, BanglaFact officially classified the claim that the video showed Khagrachhari events as false and misleading.

In such, the government has to take stern measures to prevent spreading fake and misleading videos and documents in social media.

Using all safety tools the concerned authorities have to thwart spreading all the misleading propagandas, videos and documents.