Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking media organization, has identified 50 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) that have been actively spreading communal narratives by sharing images, videos, and information related to recent events in Bangladesh.
Each of these accounts has been found to promote at least one instance of communal misinformation or disinformation.
Between August 5 and August 13, their posts garnered over 154 million views, the Rumor Scanner report says.
The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit's analysis revealed that 72% of these accounts, which are spreading fake and misleading information, claim to be based in India.
Some of these account holders include individuals in responsible positions, and even several mainstream Indian media outlets have broadcasted this fake information.
On July 7, five people died from electrocution during a Ratha Yatra in Bogra. A video of this incident was posted on August 9 by an X account in India, claiming it depicted "Jihadis bombing a camp in Bangladesh, killing hundreds of Hindu women and children."
This video was shared in the context of recent events, distorting the actual incident to fit a communal narrative.
Out of the 50 accounts analyzed by the Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit, 13 posts similarly misrepresented different incidents in a communal light.
However, the most common form of misinformation involved portraying Muslim individuals as Hindus.
For example, a video falsely claimed that Bangladeshi actor Azmeri Haque Badhon was a Hindu woman giving a tearful speech, presenting it as "a Hindu woman in Bangladesh crying while giving a speech."
Azmeri Haque Badhon herself later refuted this claim.
The Rumor Scanner Investigation Unit found evidence of 17 such incidents, making this the most frequent type of misinformation, accounting for 36% of the cases.
A long-term analysis of these accounts reveals that they have been spreading misinformation not just about recent events in Bangladesh, but also for several years about various issues across South Asian countries.
A recent video, claiming to show a Hindu man holding a protest demanding information about his missing son, was shared by at least three major Indian media outlets—Asian News International (ANI), NDTV, and Mirror Now—on their X handles.
However, Rumor Scanner verified that the man in the video is Muslim. The individual, named Babul Hawlader, participated in the protest to demand information about his son, who has been missing since 2013.
Rumor Scanner found that several other Indian media outlets and individuals associated with them were involved in spreading this communal misinformation. The list includes X accounts of media outlets like Zee News Madhya Pradesh and News24.
Rumor Scanner's Investigation Unit has also found that Nupur J Sharma, the editor-in-chief of the well-known Indian media outlet OpIndia, regularly spreads communal misinformation about recent events in Bangladesh through her X account.
On August 11, she blocked a Rumor Scanner team member on X after she was informed that one of her posts was false.
The involvement of various responsible individuals from outside India in spreading communal rumors has also come to light.
