Centering on the January 7 general election, 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.
Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking platform based on Facebook and YouTube, revealed the information in its latest report (October-December) on various categories.
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.
It comes amid Meta on November 28 claiming tight monitoring of rumors as the social media hinted at more than two billion people heading to the polls in elections across some of the world’s biggest democracies, including the US, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the EU.
“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.
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.
Breakdown of rumors
Other than those on the premier, 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.
Experts’ take
The fact-checking platform’s head of operations, Sajjad Hossain Chowdhury, told Bangla Tribune 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.
Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, said: “In this digital era, rumors are presented to us in a credible manner.
“It raises a lot of fear. Even many educated people get confused and misguided by such contents,” he said, demanding that the rumors be blocked and monitored regularly.
